Desire, Love, Identity: exploring LGBTQ histories

Small exhibition at the British Museum looking at how we glimpse gay life in their collections and how it often went unacknowledged in the past.

It talked about the museum’s secret museum which it had from 1830 – 1953 with objects, including those reflecting homosexual relationships, which were not on view to the public. Some of the objects were rather ironic such as an Etruscan canvas where a ‘rude’ bit was cut out and put in the secret museum. The main canvas has now been lost and only the ‘rude’ bit survives.

It looked at how we have more images of male homosexuality in the collection via depictions of the Ganymede myth whereas lesbianism is rarer and often produced for men rather than women such as in images on oil lamps.

There was also a good trail around the museum pointing out objects on permanent view and their relevance such as the busts of Hadrian and Antinous shown here.

Closed on 15 October 2017

 

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