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While LGBTIQA+ history has not been recorded in conventional sources, visual artists have created opportunities to interpret transformative periods of 'queer' activism.
Throughout history, queer activism has found expression in many forms. From community building to public action to the creation of artworks, queer and LGBTIQA+ people have long devised methods to work against systems of oppression and discrimination. While queer activism spans many centuries, the twentieth century was a crucial turning point in queer activism and visibility through the defiant actions of LGBTIQA+ people.1
Like many aspects of queer history, much of this activism has not been recorded in 'conventional' sources. Instead, it has often been sustained by queer communities- handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and other sources not typically deemed 'legitimate'. Unearthing these stories often requires you to 'dig hard and do a lot of interpreting'.2 This is where artworks can become vital sources of information.
Transformative periods of queer activism in the twentieth century were recorded by visual artists. Through the close analysis of three artworks from the 'QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection' exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, this article will explore how queer activism has been inscribed into artworks, and how artworks therefore serve as important means of recording queer histories.3
Codified Defiance: Gender-Queer Dressing in the Early Twentieth Century
Many important developments in queer activism took place prior to liberation, during the first decades of the twentieth century. This period was characterised by LGBTIQA+ people pushing back against the systemic oppression and discrimination their communities had long faced. The release of Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness in 1928 is a particularly important example of this resistance.4 The semi-autobiographical novel follows upper-class English woman Stephen Gordon coming to terms with her sexuality.
It is widely considered the first lesbian novel published in England. However, this moment of defiant self-expression was quickly quashed. The release of The Well of Loneliness was followed by widespread moral outrage. Legal actions initiated by conservative public figures ensued, and the book was subsequently banned in England and the US.
However, the history of queerness is not a linear one. Around the same time in Paris, Lulu de Montparnasse founded Le Monocle, a radical lesbian bar that...