Famous LGBT Artists – The Importance of Queer Creativity

There have been many gay artists in the history of art, although not openly so. Gay painters, along with gay people from all walks of life, were largely repressed throughout history, and often faced prison sentences or even the prospect of death for their preferences. Today, queer artists are able to express themselves openly and freely without fear of prejudice. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most famous LGBT artists throughout art history.

Exploring Famous LGBT Artists

Many people are surprised to learn that some of the most renowned artists in art history were gay. Today, however, we will be revealing these iconic gay artists to you. These queer artists from various styles and eras all helped pave the way for others to follow.

Frida Kahlo (1932) by Guillermo Kahlo; Guillermo Kahlo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Aubrey Beardsley (1872 – 1898)

Despite being rather short-lived, Aubrey Beardsley’s career was nonetheless incredibly impactful. He was often regarded as among the most controversial artists of his era and managed to produce a considerable amount of drawings in the seven short years of his career before eventually succumbing to T.B. His Victorian audiences found his works simultaneously repulsive and intriguing due to his often taboo and bizarre themes and strange sense of humor.

His artwork included aspects of Symbolism, Decadence, Aestheticism, and most evidently, Art Nouveau.

He was not afraid to take inspiration from many different art styles and use elements from movements as he saw fit. Due to the block print method that he used, his works were easily copied and distributed. To shock audiences out of their complacent states of mind, he would appropriate the themes of eroticism, death, and decay of the Decadent movement, and combine his arabesque lines and interlaced forms, which marked the transition from Aestheticism to the Art Nouveau style.

The Climax (1894) by Aubrey Beardsley; Aubrey Beardsley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Romaine Brooks (1874 – 1970)

Romaine Brooks belonged to the very first group of female artists who lived an openly bohemian lifestyle. She worked as an artist during the pre-World War I era, in which women did not enjoy the same rights as men and therefore did not enjoy the same opportunities. The way that women from that era managed to fit in was to renounce and sort of femininity and take on a more masculine way of dressing and acting.

Therefore, many of her most renowned works portray somewhat androgynous beings that are not bound by domesticity, but instead heroes with purpose out in the real world.

She developed a signature soft gray palette and has often been compared to one of her American peers, James McNeil Whistler. Some have argued that this gray tone was the result of the sense of melancholy that accompanied her life, while others have stated that it was the result of the photographic medium. At this time, photographs were just black and white, or various shades of gray likely inspired her choice of color palette.

La Baronne Emile D’Erlanger (c. 1924) by Romaine Brooks; Romaine Brooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tamara de Lempicka (1898 – 1980)

Tamara de Lempicka’s era was the years between the wars in glittery Paris, a place and time of overtly sexual behavior and high style. In her works, one can see the depiction of the shifting attitudes and morals in Parisian society at that time. She existed on the bisexual fringes of Parisian society where nothing was off limits. She believed in using one’s resources to the best of their abilities and was regarded as a go-getter who did not sit around and wait for things to come to her.

She often portrayed herself in a green Bugatti, yet she actually owned a yellow Renault.

She arrived in Paris and began studying the works of the Old Masters. Yet, she eventually drifted towards the work of the Mannerists. She also experimented with synthetic Cubism in her early works. Yet, it was her Art Deco pieces that she grew to most be associated with. She was also known to be something of a workaholic, often pulling off nine-hour painting sessions.

Tamara Łempicka in her Studio (nd); Fry72, Karel Frydrýšek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991)

Berenice Abbott was most well-known for her photography which included documentary and portrait photography. Her works emphasized the educational and communicative importance of the medium. Her most renowned works are her cityscapes from the 1930s. As a gay artist, she found like-minded people in Montparnasse and Greenwich Village. She hoped to inspire change in her viewers by documenting history as well as her own experiences through her realist vision. She used the medium to facilitate the dialogue between the photograph, photographer, and audience.

She was aware of how photography, especially science photography could serve as a means for easy interpretation for the common layman and woman.

Her works helped establish photography as a legitimate art form in both the United States and Europe. Additionally, it manages to demonstrate the complexity of the medium by means of her straightforward approach to her subjects and how the medium could potentially be utilized as both a modern art form as well as a form of visual documentation. Her work helped to pave the way for subsequent generations of photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Gregory Crewdson, Jeff Wall, Trevor Paglen, and Clare Strand.

Blossom Restaurant (1935) by Berenice Abbott; Berenice Abbott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Beauford Delaney (1901 – 1979)

Beauford Delaney was an American artist whose work spanned all of the major art trends of the first half of the 20th century. His work spanned from city scenes and portraits to abstract compositions, but he always conveyed the vibrancy and rhythms of his subjects. His experiences as a gay African American during a very discriminatory period of the country’s history caused him a considerable amount of anxiety and eventually resulted in his mental deterioration.

He strove throughout his life to use his art to overcome these problems and tried to interact with like-minded individuals.

The writer James Baldwin would become good friends with the gay painter and the two shared a love for Jazz and Blues music. Those in the New York art scene regarded him as a somewhat enigmatic genius and he was well-known by all within this circle, but often largely ignored by those outside of it. Yet, his works are today recognized for their importance. His work was particularly influential to those with the Greenwich Village scene as well as the Harlem Renaissance scene.

Portrait of American artist Beauford Delaney (1901–1979) by Carl Van Vechten; Carl Van Vechten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954)

Frida Kahlo is often regarded to be among the most important female artists of all time. She skillfully weaved her sexuality into her artwork as she addressed themes of sexual pleasure and sexuality, as well as her stormy relationship with her husband, the famed muralist Diego Rivera, throughout her creative career. Diego, though, was far from her lone love interest. She, in fact, had a series of colorful romances with both women and men throughout her short but exciting 47-year life, including cinema actresses Paulette Goddard, Dolores del Rio, and Maria Felix, among others.

Georgia O’Keeffe, was one of Kahlo’s greatest loves.

They met in the early 1930s in America and immediately acknowledged one other as kindred souls. The specifics of the artist’s relationship with Parisian nightclub legend Josephine Baker are unknown. Despite the fact that the biopic Frida presents them as lovers, there is no recorded documentation that conclusively proves this. The two are said to have met when Kahlo traveled to Paris in 1939 to exhibit some of her works. Baker was actually fighting against the Nazi regime at the time by serving in the French intelligence and therefore kept her relationships with women to herself.

Self Portrait with Braid (1941) by Frida Kahlo; Ambra75, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992)

Francis Bacon’s father worked in the War Office during World War 1, a job that required the family to move quite often. This fact, combined with his acute asthma, meant that the young Bacon did not receive a formal education. When it emerged that he was gay, his father told the stable boys to severely beat him. In 1926, his father eventually threw him out of the family home after catching him trying on his mother’s clothing.

In the late 1920s, he got a job in furniture and interior design and moved into an apartment in London.

Roy de Maistre, one of Bacon’s patrons, would also become something of a mentor to the young queer artist, encouraging him to try oil painting. His mature style developed in the late 1940s, moving from a more Surrealistic style to one that added aspects of motion found in photography and film. This enabled him not only to depict motion more accurately in his works but also to help unify the fields of photography and painting.

Francis Bacon (1989) by Reginald Gray; Reginald gray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987)

Even though the artist’s sexuality has often been debated or even suppressed, it is known that he had several male partners throughout his life, including Jed Johnson, John Giorno, and Edward Wallowitch, who were also among his collaborators and friends who helped shape his artistic career. Warhol was something of a socialite who had a large entourage of famous friends such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Salvador Dali, Grace Jones, and Keith Haring among many others.

Collectively, this group would come to be known as the “Warhol Superstars”.

Even though he worked and lived at a time of great prejudice, he was openly gay and many of his earliest works even portrayed naked men. In fact, the gay painter had been rejected from many exhibitions because his works were regarded as being “too gay”. His artwork was very influenced by the gay underground culture and there are many examples of his artworks that are viewed from the lens of a queer artist who worked through the 1960s through to the 1980s, a period when being homosexual came with serious consequences.

Andy Warhol with Archie, his pet Dachshund (1973) by Jack Mitchell; Jack Mitchell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

David Hockney (1937 – Present)

Hockney is often regarded among the most influential 20th-century artists from Britain and is most well-known for his paintings of swimming pools and portraits. His artwork spanned a range of different styles and mediums, such as opera posters, Cubist abstraction, collage photography, and paintings of the British countryside. His interest in photo collages eventually led to his embrace of digital photography.

He typically portrayed the same subject matter multiple times, creating serial paintings that explored the myriad of different ways that a space or image could be observed.

In many of his works, one can see the effect that photography was starting to have on painting. When he traveled to California in 1963, he discovered a world of sunshine, bright colors, and swimming pools. After that, he alternated between his home in Yorkshire and Los Angeles. He has additionally received nine honorary degrees from various institutions across the world. He took 100s of photos of his friends and combined them into multi-viewpoint “photo drawings” in 2014. He continues to push the envelope in whatever medium he tries his hand at.

David Hockney’s stained glass window for Westminster Abbey (2021); amandabhslater, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Keith Haring (1958 – 1990)

Keith Haring was not only a hugely successful artist, but also an activist who was part of the 1980s art scene in New York. He may have been renowned for his bright and colorful artworks, such as his barking dog and radiant baby motifs, much of his work was a response to both political and contemporary events around him. The topics that were of concern to him included drug abuse, the AIDS epidemic, and the restrictive and racial discrimination of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

As a gay painter, he was also concerned about the discrimination faced by the LGBT community.

He started filling New York subways with his chalk artworks, inspired by the graffiti artists of the time. His intention was to reach as diverse an audience as possible and make his art accessible to all. While it definitely managed to attract the eyes of an audience, it also managed to attract the attention of the authorities, who arrested the queer artist on several occasions. He lived in the East Village and had many famous friends, such as Madonna and Andy Warhol.

Keith Haring at work in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1986) by Rob Bogaerts; Rob Bogaerts, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

That wraps up our list of famous LGBT artists who have managed to become world-renowned in a world that so often disregards or outright restricts the expression of gay painters. Many of these artists had to hide their sexual preferences for fear of prejudice and even imprisonment. However, others never hid the fact that they were queer artists and helped to foster an environment where people from all backgrounds could express themselves through art, no matter their sexual identity, race, class, or any other form of categorization.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Do Gay Artists Paint?

Throughout the history of art, painters were subjected to the same discrimination as gay people in other spheres of life. Therefore, many did not depict any sort of reference to their sexual preferences overtly in their works. For a large part of our history, being gay could often land one in serious trouble, ranging from being ostracized to being imprisoned. Today, however, famous LGBT artists are free to paint whatever they see fit, and many use their works to explore topics that are relevant to the LGBT community, helping to educate the public through the expressive medium of art. 

Who Are the Most Famous LGBT Artists?

There have been countless artists who were gay or bisexual in the history of art. However, they often had to hide this fact from the public and authorities. Yet, thanks to journals and historical evidence, we know that masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were interested in people of their own sex. Some of the most famous gay artists include Aubrey Beardsley, Romain Brooks, Berenice Abbott, Tamara de Lempicka, Beauford Delaney, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Keith Haring, and Frida Kahlo. Many of these artists have also focused on issues faced by the LGBT community in their works.

Jordan Anthony( Content Editor, Art Writer, Photographer )

Jordan Anthony is a Cape Town-based film photographer, curator, and arts writer. She holds a Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she explored themes like healing, identity, dreams, and intuitive creation in her Contemporary art practice. Jordan has collaborated with various local art institutions, including the KZNSA Gallery in Durban, the Turbine Art Fair, and the Wits Art Museum. Her photography focuses on abstract color manipulations, portraiture, candid shots, and urban landscapes. She’s intrigued by philosophy, memory, and esotericism, drawing inspiration from Surrealism, Fluxus, and ancient civilizations, as well as childhood influences and found objects. Jordan is working for artfilemagazine since 2022 and writes blog posts about art history and photography.

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