Queer

Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art

by David J. Getsy (Editor)

Key artists' writings that have influenced and catalyzed contemporary queer artistic practice.

Historically, “queer” was the slur used against those who were perceived to be or made to feel abnormal. Beginning in the 1980s, “queer” was reappropriated and embraced as a badge of honor. While queer draws its politics and affective force from the history of non-normative, gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities, it is not equivalent to these categories, nor is it an identity. Rather, it offers a strategic undercutting of the stability of identity and of the dispensation of power that shadows the assignment of categories and taxonomies. Artists who identify their practices as queer today call forth utopian and dystopian alternatives to the ordinary, adopt outlaw stances, embrace criminality and opacity, and forge unprecedented kinships, relationships, loves, and communities.

Rather than a book of queer theory for artists, this is a book of artists' queer tactics and infectious concepts. By definition, there can be no singular “queer art.” Here, in the first Documents of Contemporary Art anthology to be centered on artists' writings, numerous conversations about queer practice are brought together from diverse individual, social and cultural contexts. Together these texts describe and examine the ways in which artists have used the concept of queer as a site of political and institutional critique, as a framework to develop new families and histories, as a spur to action, and as a basis from which to declare inassimilable difference.

Genres: Art, Queer, Nonfiction, Theory, Gender, LGBT, Sexuality

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 19, 2016

About the author

David J. Getsy is Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His books include Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender, Scott Burton: Collected Writings on Art and Performance, and Rodin: Sex and the Making of Modern Sculpture.

Reviews

[Giulia Goldston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lot. I don't mean that as a criticism. It is 225 pages, but very dense, and intense. There is a lot of really great stuff in here. Queer artists talking about their queer work. The problem I had, centrally, was that I don't know queer art history, so there was a good deal of context, or responses that the artists made that I didn't understand because I wasn't familiar with the context of their work.I recommend the book if you are familiar with queer art history. It was a very good read in that regard. In general, though, the book was very good. I think it would have been a perfect match in a world where I was more knowledgeable on the topic at hand. But frankly, it was a good read anyway.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queer

This book is remarkable, as a queer artist and a person of color I felt jolted as I was finally able to isolate and identify familiar feelings and ideas that I was unable to articulate before, perhaps due to my poor command of the English language. I feel the anger, the frustration, and the urgency these artist must have experienced as they negotiate their livelihoods, their art practice, and their sexuality with a society that both, ignores and brutalizes them. It was refreshing to read from “regular” people, and believe me, these artist are anything but regular! I appreciate the diverse voices compiled, I only wish the text in its original language was also included. It was very educational and I have to admit, some of my opinions were challenged and a few changed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the arts, feminist, trans, gay, queer artist and people, gender studies students, etc.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nicely packed resource for extracts from many queer texts that talk about homophobia, transphobia, freedom of sexuality, radical ideas etc. etc. If anyone is researching queerness, this is more of an artistic book that talks about how many aspects and history of the Queer community, how it is a peculiar that not only gets hate from the hetero-normative society, but also within itself.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great dive into the polemics of queer art-making. Though the intro states the collection veers away from extensive dialogues on sex, sex is still ever-present (what is identity without who you love?) within this book.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necessary reading. I couldn’t get enough. I loved the artists who spoke of not assimilating or becoming normative, but being recognized for their difference.

[Mills College Library]

700.453 Q382 2016