Tonight:
4°c
Nelson Mandela and other gay icons on show in London
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent26 Mar 2009
Will Young and Nelson Mandela will stand side by side in a new exhibition of "gay icons".
The singer, who is gay, and the former South African president, who is not, are among 60 figures chosen for the National Portrait Gallery's show.
It is being curated by 10 famous gay men and women who have each been asked to name six people whom they admire or who influenced them.
The 10 curators are: Labour peers Waheed Alli and Chris Smith; the chief executive of gay campaign group Stonewall, Ben Summerskill; comedian and presenter Sandi Toksvig; actor Sir Ian McKellen; musician Sir Elton John; tennis champion Billie Jean King; and writers Alan Hollinghurst, Jackie Kay and Sarah Waters.
Their only constraint was that choices had to be photographic portraits. This creates a timeframe of about 150 years - the period in which homosexuality gradually became accepted and made legitimate, the gallery said.
One of Lord Smith's choices was Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science whose career ended when he was "outed" and criminally prosecuted at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. And Sir Ian chose Harvey Milk, the first openly gay, elected politician in California whose life has just been depicted on film in an Oscar-winning performance by Sean Penn.
But the curators were not limited to choosing gay figures and Sir Elton named the late Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich while Billie Jean King chose Mandela.
The final show, called Gay Icons, will also include portraits of artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney and writers Quentin Crisp and Joe Orton. The range stretches from entertainers Will Young, Kenneth Williams and Lily Savage to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Less well-known names include Sylvia Townsend Warner. Born in Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1893, she became a writer of lesbian novels which were some of the earliest to be revived by the Virago Press when it was established to champion women's writing.
But some choices are likely to resurrect debate over sexual identity.
Gerard Manley Hopkins has been sometimes accused of expressing suppressed homoerotic impulses in his poems but lived his life as a celibate Catholic priest. There was also some debate - after her death - about whether novelist Daphne du Maurier was bisexual.
Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said Gay Icons would share inspiring stories. "These are stories of brave lives and significant achievements, told through iconic photographic images chosen by selectors who are themselves icons."
Gay Icons, sponsored by Rosé d'Anjou Wines, will run from 2 July to 18 October and there is an admission charge. See www.npg.org.uk for more information.
Reader views (1)
Excellent news!
- Cary Portway, New York, NY, 26/03/2009 22:07
Report abuse
