Cathy's Art Diary

Surprising exhibition at Belmacz of some of the erotic drawings of Duncan Grant on loan from Charleston Farmhouse. I say surprising as I didn’t know they’d lent any plus I didn’t know the Gallery! I just walked past on my way to Oxford Street and found them. The show was curated by two contemporary artists, Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl, who had designed the space and included some of their own work from the 1980s. I had already seen the exhibition of drawings at Charleston and I think if anything some of these were more acrobatic! They also seemed to include more women. They were beautiful displayed and it was good to find some of the works in a different context. Closed 23 December 2022  

Thought provoking exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse introducing the recently discovered erotic drawings by Duncan Grant. It was lovely to see these drawings on show at last, they were acquired during lockdown having been passed down through the queer community including during the time when sex between men was still illegal. It was a lovely touch to show them with portraits of the five men who had looked after them. It’s wonderful that they have now come back home to Charleston. Although many of them are explicit because they are so tenderly drawn and have a certain cartoon like quality, they are easy to look at and quite charming.  I liked the idea of showing the work with contemporary responses that Charleston have commissioned but some of these feel a lot harsher and real and so, at times, they are more difficult to look at. The show did raise many questions in my mind which I will continue to explore. Why explicit art in a drawing and photograph can feel so different? W...

Fascinating online talk from Charleston Farmhouse and part of OUTing the Past: The International Festivals of Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Trans History looking at the newly discovered erotic drawings of Duncan Grant. Darren Clarke, Head of Collections at Charleston, told us how the drawings had come into the collection of the house having been given to Edward La Bas in 1959 labelled “These drawings are very private” then having been passed from lover to lover until donated to them last year. It had previously been thought that they had been destroyed by La Bas’s sister on his death. Clarke looked talked about the influences on the pictures such as Greco-Roman traditions and contemporary physical fitness magazines while showing us a wonderful selection of these tender and joyful images. He also discussed how they fit didn’t fit with the thinking of the this time when homosexuality was still illegal and how the fitted into Duncan’s life and more publicly known art. This was a great...