‘The First Homosexuals’ proves art history has never been straight

The First Homosexuals

The Monacelli Press

The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869-1939 by Jonathan D. Katz.

Art history has never been straight. This is the unavoidable conclusion from visiting The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939, a groundbreaking exhibition at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659, a private institution focused on socially engaged art.

In a moment when LGBTQ+ rights are under attack across the globe, this show confronts erasure with a glorious celebration of the vital legacy of queer history through art. Seven years in the making and featuring 300+ works from 125 artists, loaned from over 100 museums and private collections around the world, this is not just an exhibition, it’s a monumental cultural event, which is up for view until July 26.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Alice Austen The Darned Club, 1891 Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

Organized by leading art historian and activist Jonathan D. Katz and associate curator Johnny Willis, the show’s starting point is 1869, the year the word “homosexual” was first coined, catapulting same-sex desire into a new category of personal identity, one that would shape culture, art, and politics in profound ways.

One of the show’s most exciting aspects is that it challenges conventional art history by presenting many works within a queer context for the first time. In doing so, it shows how art became one of the primary vehicles through which “the love that dared not speak its name” was able to manifest itself through seven decades of radical transformation.

“While language narrowed lives into a simplistic binary of homosexual/heterosexual, art gave form to a nuanced range of sexualities and genders that can best be described as queer,” Katz says in an interview for Out.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Andreas Andersen Interior with Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence 1894 Under license from MiC – Direzione Musei Statali Hendrik Christian Andersen Museum.

The exhibition went through a grueling process, which Katz describes for us: “We knew that calling it ‘The First Homosexuals’ and making it global was not going to be easy. At least 85 percent of our loan requests were denied, many after an agreement had been signed. The Slovakian right-wing government canceled their National Museum’s participation. In response, the museum’s director and the entire curatorial staff quit. A Colombian collector changed his mind because he believed his precious work would not be safe in the U.S. In spite of these challenges, we believed that it was more important to keep the show’s title and to articulate its purpose forthrightly than it was to kowtow to intolerant ideologies.”

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Elisàr von Kupffer La danza 1918 © Municipality of Minusio Centro Elisarion Claudio Berger photographer.

Occupying all three floors of the Tadao Ando–designed Wrightwood 659, the exhibition unfolds in eight thematic sections, each offering fresh insights into how same-sex love and gender variance were celebrated in art.

The opening section, Before the Binary, challenges today’s assumption that heterosexuality and homosexuality have always been seen as opposites. Artworks here suggest a more fluid past, from George Catlin’s depiction of Indigenous Two-Spirit dancers, who were born male but lived and performed duties as a woman, to erotic Japanese prints by Utamaro and Hokusai, where same-sex and different-sex intimacy are treated with equal reverence.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Félix Vallotton, Gertrude Stein 1907 The Baltimore Museum of Art The Cone Collection formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore Maryland BMA Photography by Mitro Hood.

Portraits features artists who dared to make homosexuality visible long before it was safe or legal to do so. Highlights include Félix Vallotton’s portrait of Gertrude Stein, Thomas Eakins’s intimate sketch of Walt Whitman, and Anna Klumpke’s tender rendering of her partner, Rosa Bonheur. More than simple portraits, these are declarations of love and defiance.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

George Catlin Dance to the Berdash, 1835-1837 Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison Jr 1985.

The section titled Relationships explores the personal and social dimensions of queer lives. From Alice Austen’s audacious photographs of female couples to Marie Laurencin’s sensual and playful female imagery, their works reflect the sheer diversity and joy of queer intimacy.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Glyn Philpot Profile of a Man with Hibiscus Flower (Félix) 1932 Private collection Photo Daniel Katz Gallery London.

The exhibit then pivots to Changing Bodies, Changing Definitions, where we witness how the nude evolved in art in relation to shifting conceptions of sexuality. The ambiguously-gendered adolescents in the 19th century, transformed decades later into portraits of muscular men and women. Here, Romaine Brooks’s androgynous nude of her female lover sits alongside Tamara de Lempicka’s muscular female nude.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Ida Matton The Secret 1902 Photo Joel Bergroth Hälsinglands Museum.

One of the most powerful sections, History, features works which portray an idealized classical past as an alibi to depict homoerotic imagery. Hans von Marées’s “Five Men in a Landscape” feels suspended in a timeless queer utopia, while Rupert Bunny’s muscular Hercules takes on both dragons and sexual subtext.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Ludwig von Hofmann Nude Fishermen and Boys on Green Shore c. 1900 Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig.

But art is never just about aesthetics. In Colonialism and Resistance, the exhibition explains how Western imperialism often coded queerness as “foreign” or “degenerate” while simultaneously fetishizing it. A pernicious side effect of colonialism was that Western suppressive ideologies on homosexuality were imposed on conquered lands, many of which went from respecting same-sex relations to writing homophobic laws into their legal codes.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Marie Laurencin The Elegant Ball or The Country Dance 1913 Musée Marie Laurencin Tokyo.

Performing highlights the way the world of entertainment flaunted the existence and joy of same-sex desire. The evocative bronze bust of dancer Nijinsky by Lady Una Troubridge, partner of lesbian icon Radclyffe Hall, offers a poignant nod to the queer lineage in the performing arts.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Romaine Brooks Self-Portrait 1923 Smithsonian American Art Museum,Gift of the artist 1966.

Finally, Beyond the Binary delivers what may be the show’s most revelatory section. Featuring more than 60 works, it draws direct lines between early queer and trans identities. It showcases one of the first self-consciously trans images, Gerda Wegener’s 1929 portrait of her spouse as she understood herself: the woman Lili Elbe. Lili appears before having gender affirming surgery, but Gerda portrays her as her fully actualized in her womanhood, posing as an odalisque with a cigarette, an emblem of women’s liberation. Their relationship was the basis for the film The Danish Girl.

This section also includes paintings from The Elisarion, a utopian queer villa in Switzerland. One of these images is believed to depict the first same-sex wedding scene in art history.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Saturnino Herrán Nuestros dioses antiguos 1916 Colección Andrés Blaisten México.

After walking through the exhibition, visitors come to realize that sexuality is not an eternal category but a historical one that’s subject to dramatic changes in response to competing influences. Katz explains why you exit the exhibition through an image of Nazis burning Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sex Research library. “We wanted to clearly warn people that this is what fascism does, while also creating a sense of possibilities for resistance.”

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Tamara de Lempicka Nu assis de profil 1923 Döpfner Collection Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

This unmissable exhibition provides historical understanding and personal resonance for those navigating their queerness in the world today.

“We are thrilled that everyone is recognizing that this exhibition is a very precious point of light in our very dark era,” Katz concludes.

Courtesy of Wrightwood 659

Tomioka Eisen, kuchi-e (frontispiece) with artist’s seal Shisen, c. 1906, Tirey-van Lohuizen Collection.

Ignacio Darnaude, an art scholar and lecturer, is currently developing the docuseries Hiding in Plain Sight: Breaking the Queer Code in Art. You can view his Instagram, lectures and articles on queer art history at linktr.ee/breakingthegaycodeinart.