OUTLAW REPRESENTATION: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art

New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Boards in dust jacket. Light shelfwear. Very good. 376 pp., illustrations, notes, biblio., index. Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was at the center of a controversy that erupted in the late 1980s over the federal funding of "obscene" art and, perhaps not so paradoxically, found his fame and stature enhanced. As Meyer demonstrates, Mapplethorpe is hardly the first or last artist to depict homoerotic desire who has had to deal with the suppression of art, nor to experience its consequent recirculation. Mirroring Michel Foucault's concept of reverse discourse (from his, Meyer argues that the regulation of homosexuality and homosexual art has often provoked unanticipated responses and counter-representations). He chronologically examines censorship of 20th century homosexual art in America and the results of censorship attempts. The text is illustrated by some 200 reproductions of the artwork in question. Contents: The Red Envelope: On Censorship and Homosexuality. A Different American Scene: Paul Cadmus and the Satire of Sexuality. Most Wanted Men: Homoeroticism and the Secret of Censorship in Early Warhol. Barring Desire: Robert Mapplethorpe and the Discipline of Photography. Vanishing Points: Art, AIDS, and the Problem of Visibility. Afterword: Unrespectable.