The Significance of the Gay Icon

by Michael Jones · 2009-03-31 09:13:00 UTC
Topics:

K.D. Lang

We love us some art here on this blog, so we're thrilled to see that the National Portrait Gallery in London will be hosting an exhibit from July-October '09 featuring photographs of the best of the best when it comes to LGBT icons.

Altogether, 60 photographs will be on display, selected from the likes of Elton John, Billie Jean King, Sir Ian McKellen, and more.  Here's the schtick:

Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York, this exhibition focuses on portraits of both historical and modern figures. The choices provide a fascinating range of inspiring figures - some very famous, some heroic, others relatively unknown. Each icon is presented with information about their personal, and sometimes public, significance, some of it relating to the sitter but much of it linked to the selectors who have been prepared to share their experiences and feelings in their own exhibition texts.

This show is also a great coupling (and a pre-cursor) to an October 2010 show scheduled to launch at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, "Hide & Seek: Same-Sex Desire in American Portraiture."

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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