The traces of lesbian and queer artistic life are numerous, at least since the 19th and 20th centuries. However, these narratives remain on the margins of conventional art history, often rendered invisible within the very biographies of the artists, forcing history to adopt a narrow perspective. AWARE proposes a series of events focusing on Lesbian and Queer Presences in the history of 19th- and 20th-century art.

Many of these artists lived their identities to the fullest, allowing these identities to influence their work. Figures such as Rosa Bonheur, Lotte Laserstein, Romaine Brooks, Marie Laurencin, Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, Marlow Moss, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, or more recently Barbara Hammer and Laura Aguilar, to name just a few, have significantly shaped contemporary lesbian and queer art history and culture. Questioning lesbian visibility and presence means embracing the complexity and reality of the histories, creations, and cultural legacies of these artists.

This event will provide a historical overview of lesbian cultures and their artistic expressions since the early 19th century. Through signs of representation and identity formation still visible in artworks and photographs, these artistic depictions bear witness to, documents, and narrate this lesbian and queer history. They also serve as spaces and vectors for experimentation and identity construction, resonating across the centuries.

In a non-chronological approach, Catherine Gonnard will guide us through the 19th and 20th centuries up to the 1970s, using an extensive range of visual iconography. Marine Kisiel will discuss her current research for the exhibition “Dandykes! Le dandysme au féminin au XIXe siècle” to be held at the Musée Galliera in 2026. Additionally, there will be a presentation by ARCL – Archives Lesbiennes, offering a practical exploration of archives from the second half of the 20th century.

These presentations will be followed by a screening of Barbara Hammer’s film “The Female Closet” (1998, 57 min), hosted by the Centre audiovisual Simone de Beauvoir uses archives, interviews, and photographs to document the lives of 20th-century lesbian women artists.

This series of events is conceived by Ana Bordenave, with the assistance of Naemi Piecuch.

Practical information

Thursday 10 October 2024, from 6:00 pm

The event will be held in French.The movie will be in English with French subtitles.

Free registration here.