Hidden from History; Why We Should Rediscover The True Stories Behind Queer Art & Culture

Few would disagree with the suggestion that, in order to really understand an artwork and the full extent of its cultural resonance, one needs to know something about the artist who made it. Learning more about the lives of artists throughout history – from Neolithic cave painters to contemporary artists – enhances our appreciation of their art, as well as allowing the art itself to tell us more about the maker and, in turn, ourselves. Despite this, there remains to this day a tendency to ignore or misrepresent any elements that do not fit into a white, heteronormative narrative. It is incomprehensible that our insight into artists’ lives has, for so long, often ignored the most fundamental components of who these people were and are: their identities, their relationships and the stories of those whom they loved. This has often meant that the true experiences of, as we might now refer to them, ‘queer’ artists have been lost - and continue to be at risk.

In 2022’s LGBTQ History Month, with the theme, ‘Politics in Art; The Arc is Long’, Kingsley Napley is celebrating the lives of queer artists who form a vital part of the LGBTQ+ community’s cultural heritage. For those who lived in different periods of history, they might not have actively identified as (for example) gay or trans; but attempts to whitewash queer artists’ stories risk undermining the legacy of their work.

An outcry over our perception of the ‘hidden’ lives of historical figures erupted recently, centred on Mary Anning, the pioneering 19th Century palaeontologist who is the subject of the 2020 film, Ammonite. The film attracted controversy due to its depiction of a lesbian relationship between Anning and her real-life friend, Charlotte Murchison. Whilst we do know that theirs was a close friendship, there is little evidence to suggest that they were romantic partners. Commentators seized on this (before the film was even released) as an example of the filmmakers pushing a ‘woke’ agenda, and publications ranging from Time Magazine to The Daily Express featured articles about the ‘true story’ of Mary Anning. However, this reaction largely ignored the fact that we actually know very little about Anning’s life and so, crucially, neither is there any substantive evidence to support the ‘true story’ that she was straight. The fact that Anning never married, and that her letters show that she nurtured close relationships with women throughout her life, means that the depiction in Ammonite is not the wholesale corruption of history that many suggested – it is just another perspective. The significance of this uproar, in LGBTQ History month, is best summarised by the reaction of the film’s director, Francis Lee, who responded,

“After seeing queer history be routinely ‘straightened’ throughout culture, and given a historical figure where there is no evidence whatsoever of a heterosexual relationship, is it not permissible to view that person within another context…?”

One such figure from queer art history whose true story has only relatively recently been acknowledged is Tove Jansson, the beloved Finnish author, artist and creator of the Moomins. Although open about her relationships with women (she seems to have seen herself as what we might now term ‘pansexual’), her identity was frequently downplayed by others, including agents and publishers. It was sometimes even claimed that Tove lived alone, when in fact she lived with her partner, Tuulikki Pietilä, for forty-five years in Helsinki and on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. Whether a result of societal intolerance, or misplaced moral objections over how a children’s author should be, it is only recently that Tove’s love-life has been allowed to inform her work. Whilst her art can obviously be appreciated in isolation, not least due to her astonishing skill, we learn so much more when we are able to take into account her actual life – whether in gaining a new perspective of her portrayal of gender-fluidity in the Moomin world, or why, in the 1947 mural, Party in the City, Tove might have painted both herself and the woman with whom she was then madly in love.

Yet this is not simply a story about issues around acceptance in the past. Worryingly, artists’ lived experiences and stories are not still safe from censorship and misrepresentation, where they do not fit into the conventional roles and expectations. In 2021, the Grammy-nominated, Scottish electronic pop musician and producer SOPHIE (Sophie Xeon) died at the age of 34. Her tragic passing was widely marked in articles and obituaries – but it was deeply concerning to see that many publications (including The Daily Mail and The Times) inappropriately referred to her by her deadname (birth name). Not only insensitive, it is a reminder that, even as the history of our time is being written, the LGBTQ community is still confronted by the horrifying fact that their identities can be eroded day-to-day by society’s failure to respect their existence - and potentially erased when they are gone.

For many artists from history, we may never know who they really were – and that might be how they wished it. The same is true of artists living today, who might prefer to let their work speak for itself. However, perpetuating the (often politicised) assumption that, in the absence of explicit evidence to the contrary, a person must have been ‘normal’ – i.e. not gay, non-binary, bi, trans, pansexual, asexual, intersex etc. – risks writing out of history those artists for whom their identity is integral to appreciating their work. It risks undermining our cultural collective memory, and our ability to appreciate and understand the nuances of art passed down to us for safekeeping. We have a responsibility to protect our cultural heritage, both that which we inherit and that which we create – and it is worth so much less if we wilfully or negligently forget why, how and by whom it was made.

If you would like to learn about the importance of queer artists, please see this blog by my colleague, Liam Hurren. To see examples of queer artists’ work, both historic and contemporary, Queer Art History is a great gateway to discover more.

Kingsley Napley is proud to celebrate LGBT History Month in 2022, coordinated internally by our LGBTQ+ and Allies Network. We are excited to welcome LGBTQ+ historian, Norena Shopland for a talk later this month about the history of women's sexual orientation and gender identity in the historical record, as well as an exploration of how the law has impacted on people’s freedom to be who they are.