Pride Month at Hindman - Celebrating Queer Creatives
In honor of Pride Month, Hindman reflects on the LGBTQ+ artists whose compelling works we’ve offered. Beyond the creativity and artistic talent exhibited in their works, they all have distinct stories that demonstrate resiliency, a willingness to cultivate community amongst their LGBTQ+ peers, and a passion for raising awareness of queer issues in society.
Martin Wong
Martin Wong came of age in the heady California dreamscape of late 1960s San Francisco. Wong, an openly gay man of Chinese ancestry, found acceptance in the open-minded hippie counterculture while working mostly in ceramics and performance art. He turned to painting as his primary creative expression when he moved to New York’s Lower East Side in 1978. Hindman was thrilled to offer a quintessential Wong cityscape in its October 2021 Post War & Contemporary Art auction, which realized $1.1 million, a world auction record for the artist at the time.
Martin Wong (American, 1946-1999) | Persuit (El Que Gane Pierde - He Who Wins Looses), 1984
Keith Haring
Hindman is no stranger to offering works by iconic pop artist, Keith Haring. His bold imagery and artistic language became instantly recognizable, with his subway New York City works among his most famous works. His impact extended beyond the art world itself as also served as a catalyst for social activism and advocating for safe sexual practices and AIDs awareness.
Keith Haring (American, 1958-1990) | Chocolate Buddha, 1989
Gertrude Abercrombie
Queen of the Bohemians, Gertrude Abercrombie was an outspoken supporter of gay rights and a fervent ally to a teeming community of creatives. Hindman has championed her creativity for many years and the mysterious and whimsical ways she depicted her subjects. Seen below, Eggs and Carnation (1955) is likely a loving memorial to Frank Roy Harriott (1921-1955) and an homage to her life-long friend, artist Karl Priebe (1914-1976). Harriott and Priebe were in a committed same-sex interracial relationship and Priebe cared for Harriott as he battled a degenerative disease. Made the year of Harriott’s death, which Priebe announced to Abercrombie via a postcard decorated with a grieving self-portrait, the pink carnation is a traditional image for mourning, and the eggs connect directly to Priebe’s love of birding and the couple’s relationship of mutual care and protection.” – Robert Cozzolino
Gertrude Abercrombie (American, 1909-1977) | Eggs and Carnation, 1955
Roger Brown
Among Hindman’s favorite Chicago Imagists is Roger Brown, a gay artist who was very involved in the LGBTQ+ communities in Chicago. Brown went to Chicago’s first gay leather bars. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and living with AIDS, themes surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic appeared in Brown’s work. Despite his illness, Brown was able to produce incredibly creative works during this period.
Hindman set the world auction record for Brown when we sold his painting A Sunday Afternoon at the "Grand Slam" for $300,000 in our December 2019 Post War & Contemporary Art auction.
Roger Brown (American, 1941-1997) | A Sunday Afternoon at the "Grand Slam", 1972
Julie Mehretu
A working artist today, Julie Mehretu’s abstract compositions are primarily influenced by music, revolution, and failure. Recently the subject of a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of Art, the artist has described the future of queerness as a continuous creative invention. This is evident in her monumental abstract works that engulf the viewer in disorienting detail and evoke a “queer optic” in investigations of global capitalism. This lens through which to see her work provides the viewer with a framework to experience the sheer size and scale of her paintings.
Julie Mehretu (Ethiopian, b. 1970) | Entropia: Construction, 2005
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly was an openly gay artist during a time when it was not widely accepted by the mainstream. One of the most renowned abstractionists working in the New York School of Painting, Kelly had a famous relationship with pop artist Robert Indiana, reflected in Indiana’s iconic love sculpture.
Kelly was renowned for his focus on pure form and color, focusing on it solely as a subject without any additional associations. Kelly invites the viewer to engage with his work on a purely sensory level, experiencing the beauty and power of color in its most fundamental form.
Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923-2015) Jaune avec Bleu Foncé (Yellow with Dark Blue) (from Suite of Twenty-Seven Color Lithographs), 1964-1965
Robert Mapplethorpe
Known for his diverse portfolio of work ranging from homoerotic images, floral still lifes, commissioned portraits, and mixed-media sculpture, Robert Mapplethorpe is revered for his bold artistic practice. The artist was an openly queer man that explored gay sexuality and BDSM culture in his photographs and together with partner Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr., shed light on overlooked queer communities in the 70s and 80s. Their partnership and Mapplethorpe’s artistic talent were major catalysts for queer artists around the world exploring their identities.
Robert Mapplethorpe (American, 1946-1989) | Thomas, 1987
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol is among the most influential American pop artists. His repetitive images inspired by American pop culture, from dollar bills to Campbell’s Soup Cans to Elvis Presley, have captured the imagination of the world. Warhol was openly gay at a time when many of his queer colleagues were not, and he took inspiration from camp and gay culture for many of his works. His studio, The Factory, was a communal location for many of New York’s artists and celebrities, including a number who identified as queer.
Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) | Four Polo Players, 1985
Robert Rauschenberg
A titan of the post-war movement, Robert Rauschenberg’s fluid sexuality has largely been ignored by the art world. A member of a vibrant creative community at Black Mountain College that included Susan Weil, Cy Twombly, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham, Rauschenberg’s practice was imbued with a queer visual vocabulary before it was popular. The artist was cited as having romantic relationships with compatriots Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns. His fluidity manifested in his work through finding beauty in the mundane and everyday, a core tenet of queer art. Hindman is proud to offer his 1970 work Signs in our July 27th Color Theory auction.
Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008) | Signs, 1970
Catherine Opie
Catherine Opie is a powerhouse photographer known for her portrayals of queer life in the 1990s. With a career spanning over 40 years, the artist showcases poignant themes of people, politics, and places in her photos with a journalistic quality. Seen in the work below, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond depicts a nonbinary subject proudly posing for the viewer in a corset and classic silhouette. In documenting the lives of queer individuals, Opie has preserved the history of a vibrant community that is so often marginalized.
Catherine Opie (born 1961) | Justin Vivian Bond, 1993
Header Image: Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923-2003) | Four Panels, 1971