A Tale of Two Cities: Panel on Patrick Angus & J. B. Harter at LLMA

On September 28, 2022, The John Burton Harter Foundation will present a panel discussion at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (26 Wooster Street, New York, NY) to celebrate the release of A Tale of Two Cities: Patrick Angus in New York and J. B. Harter in New Orleans, an illustrated catalog showcasing the works of these two gay artists.

The panel will begin at 6 p.m., and a reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Complimentary copies of the catalog, with an essay by curator and art historian David S. Rubin, will be available for all attendees.

“Placing these two artists side-by-side helps show that even in the throes of the AIDS epidemic, the gay community remained a vibrant place where people lived and loved,” said Jack Sullivan, John Burton Harter Foundation Advisor.

Harter and Angus: An Idealist and A Realist

As one of New Orleans’ most prolific gay artists, Burt (as he was known to friends) Harter left behind a vast body of work. From the 1960s until his passing in 2002, Harter produced more than 3,000 drawings and paintings, largely in isolation, rarely exhibiting or sharing the work publicly due to its explicitly homosexual subject matter.

Full of fantasy and romance, Harter painted the idealized bodies of young, beautiful men. They luxuriate in leisure and assume classic poses found in art from ancient Greece to beefcake pinups of Bob Mizer. Harter had a long career as a curator at the Louisiana State Museum, where his attention to detail made him an expert custodian of that institution’s collections.

In New York City, Patrick Angus also created works in near isolation. Working in the 1980s, at a time when queer art had virtually no institutional support and art schools were deeply entrenched in conceptual post-minimalism, Angus painted the hustlers, go-go dancers, and patrons of New York’s strip clubs, peep shows, and bathhouses. Playwright Robert Patrick (Kennedy’s Children) called him “the Toulouse-Lautrec of Times Square.”

Angus’ bare, lonely, lust-filled works were greatly admired by such notables as Quentin Crisp and David Hockney, as well as Harter himself. However, his meager sales found him living in low-rent apartments most of his career. Like Harter, his work was rarely exhibited or studied in his own lifetime. He passed away in 1992 from AIDS-related complications.

The relevance of Harter and Angus has grown as today’s curators dismantle the exclusionary canon of the past to include previously overlooked stories, styles, and sensibilities.

About the Panelists

The evening’s panel will include Esther McGowan, Gio Black Peter, and Correy Serrant. Dan Cameron will moderate the event.

Elizabeth McGowan is the Executive Director of Visual AIDS, a New York City-based non-profit using art to fight HIV/AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting artists living with HIV, and preserving legacies. In her role, McGowan oversees exhibitions, artist projects, public programs, and publications. With a B.A. in Art History, she has worked across the arts and humanities in executive roles spanning fundraising and development to strategic planning and marketing.

Gio Black Peter is a Guatemala-born, New York City-based visual and performance artist. While modern in approach—often using technology to offer a multimedia-fueled commentary on current events—his art is rooted to the past. His visual work has a Paul Gauguin style, where the everyday and the natural fuse with a dreamlike sense of the fantastic. Peter’s body of work reveals how beauty and vitality can be found in celebrating life outside the mainstream. Selected exhibitions include the 30th International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, Galerie L’axolotl in Toulon, Palais de Tokyo and Library of Arts in Paris, Envoy Enterprises in New York, and the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, among others.

Correy Serrant is a Cataloguer with Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, where he researches and registers works of art, as well as edits and contributes to catalogs for Swann’s African American art department. Serrant is also enrolled in the master’s program in art history at CUNY City College of New York, focusing on African American art and art theory. He interned at 303 Gallery and Jack Shainman Gallery and worked for Salon 94. He’s a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and holds a B.A. in Art History.

Dan Cameron is a New York City-based art curator who writes, teaches, consults, and gives lectures on art. Throughout his year career, Cameron has championed the unexpected and the under-recognized. In 1982, he was the first American curator to organize a museum exhibition on LGBTQ art, and in 2008 he launched the Prospect New Orleans triennial in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He has curated international biennials in Istanbul, Taipei, Ecuador, and Orange County, California, as well as retrospectives of such esteemed artists as Carolee Schneemann, Paul McCarthy, Peter Saul, William Kentridge, Faith Ringgold, David Wojnarowicz, Marcel Odenbach, Pierre et Gilles, Cildo Meireles, and Martin Wong.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Time: 6 – 8 p.m.

Location: Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, 26 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013

Free

HEALTH, SAFETY, ACCESSIBILITY

In order to continue adhering to safety protocols and ensure the protection of our staff and other patrons, we require that all visitors to the museum wear a mask the entire time they are inside the museum. Masks are always available to those who need them at our front desk.

Leslie-Lohman Museum strives to provide a welcoming environment to all visitors. External steps lead to our entrance doors: a wheelchair lift is available. All galleries are wheelchair-accessible, and a single-occupancy accessible restroom is located behind the visitor services desk: all restrooms are gender-neutral. Large print didactics are available.

To request access accommodations please contact [email protected] at least three days in advance of your planned visit.

Image:

Cropped view of "Red Red Wine, A Gaiety Scene"

Patrick Angus

1980s

Crayon on paper

12" x 9"

Collection of Robert Shiell, Los Angeles