Author:Sexuality & colour .How do they work together in art if indeed they do work together? As an artist and a person colour is in our every day lives, we see it everywhere we go. Each waking moment as well as our un-waking moments is filled with the experiences and emotions courtesy of colour. I aim to explore the use of colour in modern day art. More specifically homosexuality and how it can be misunderstood. What do colours say about the subject matter, about calture, about us as people and what opinions are formed by this art works. Before we can understand current works we must understand past works and calture norms of the day. By looking at art from 400 BC to 2000 AD I hope to form a contextual picture that explains and talks about the issues of colour in homosexual art.
(1) 
Early Greek & Roman Art
(1)The Ancient Greeks produced one of the earliest well-developed examples of gay art. Unlike in other ancient cultures, the Greeks considered free adult male sexual attraction to be both normal and natural. The Ancient Greeks even sanctioned relationships between teenage boys and older men as a rite of passage for males just entering puberty. These homoerotic relationships were the subject of elaborate Greek poetry and art. Vivid images were often painted on black figure vases, hundreds of which survive today. Some of these distinctive vases show an older man giving gifts to a boy, while others show more overtly sexual acts. While the Ancient Greeks understood sexuality in radically different ways than we do today, their art serves as a reminder of a time when same-sex attraction was accepted and even celebrated.
(2)
Attic black figure cup (520 BC) ceramic cup.Museum of Fine Art Bosten .
(The bearded taller man displays a conventional courtship gesture of the time .He fonds the genitals of a boy who reciprocates by touching the mans chin )
(3)
Warren cup (1-20 CE) Siliver,British Museum .
(4)
Apollodors,Decoration on a ceramic vessel .
Author:It is interesting to see how far back homosexual & and paedophilic art goes back. It is also interesting to note the format in which it was documented in .As for back as 500BC homosexuality was common places…it was entrenched in Greek and Roman calture. And as we struggle for acceptance too day what is still taboo in some circles was very much a norm of the day.
However the art that we see in Greek and Roman worlds where largely void of colour. It seems that colour in this time period did not hold as much focus as the placement or arrangement of the art. Colours where limited to, blacks, earthen reds, browns and yellows. As most documented homosexual activities where painted on pots. What where the subjects doing, what type of people where they, how old where they. Age was a big factor in the Roman and Greek era. Often men would have boys as there sexual companions and lovers rather then adult men.
(5)“The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier, as Western societies have done for the past century. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behaviour by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated. This active/passive polarization corresponded with dominant and submissive social roles: the active (penetrative) role was associated with masculinity, higher social status, and adulthood, while the passive role was associated with femininity, lower social status, and youth”
Author:It is important to list some of the calture difference between Greek and Roman art that was directly affected art both in early years and in today art. In the Roman world Law where set that controlled its citizens. Such as: Man-child born to Free Man (Not slaves) was strictly off limits as lovers to adult men.(5) And as early as 2nd centrey BC Male-Male rape had been out lawed. (6)And one very important fact that gay marriage (marriage between male & male, young or older) was excepted in early Roman Empire but become disapproved later on .
In both Greek and Roman one thing is clear. That age was not important it was simply they act of sex that was the key factor.
So what if any sugifactes is ancient Roman and Greek art, as colour did not enter homosexualiy type art till around 1000 AD or at lest in any significant term. It was the culturally trends that where carried on that would influeance the types of colours used in art and there meanings. As well as effecting many of today’s cultural taboos that continue even with in the homosexual community, such as underage gay sex and attraction to young people.
(1)Revel & Riot,2011.Abrief History of Gay Art and Symbolisam .[Online] Avaliable at.http//www.http://revelandriot.com/lgbtq-art
(1)Halperin, David M. “Homosexuality.” The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. York University. 5 October 2010.
(1)Shapiro, Harvey Alan. 2007 The Cambridge Companion to Anchaic Greece. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2 (. pp. 90 – 91.)
(1)Shapiro, Harvey Alan.2007 The Cambridge Companion to Anchaic Greece. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, (. pp. 90 – 91.)
Early Greek & Roman Art
(1)The Ancient Greeks produced one of the earliest well-developed examples of gay art. Unlike in other ancient cultures, the Greeks considered free adult male sexual attraction to be both normal and natural. The Ancient Greeks even sanctioned relationships between teenage boys and older men as a rite of passage for males just entering puberty. These homoerotic relationships were the subject of elaborate Greek poetry and art. Vivid images were often painted on black figure vases, hundreds of which survive today. Some of these distinctive vases show an older man giving gifts to a boy, while others show more overtly sexual acts. While the Ancient Greeks understood sexuality in radically different ways than we do today, their art serves as a reminder of a time when same-sex attraction was accepted and even celebrated.
(2)
Attic black figure cup (520 BC) ceramic cup.Museum of Fine Art Bosten .
(The bearded taller man displays a conventional courtship gesture of the time .He fonds the genitals of a boy who reciprocates by touching the mans chin )
(3)
Warren cup (1-20 CE) Siliver,British Museum .
(4)
Apollodors,Decoration on a ceramic vessel .
Author:It is interesting to see how far back homosexual & and paedophilic art goes back. It is also interesting to note the format in which it was documented in .As for back as 500BC homosexuality was common places…it was entrenched in Greek and Roman calture. And as we struggle for acceptance too day what is still taboo in some circles was very much a norm of the day.
However the art that we see in Greek and Roman worlds where largely void of colour. It seems that colour in this time period did not hold as much focus as the placement or arrangement of the art. Colours where limited to, blacks, earthen reds, browns and yellows. As most documented homosexual activities where painted on pots. What where the subjects doing, what type of people where they, how old where they. Age was a big factor in the Roman and Greek era. Often men would have boys as there sexual companions and lovers rather then adult men.
(5)“The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier, as Western societies have done for the past century. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behaviour by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated. This active/passive polarization corresponded with dominant and submissive social roles: the active (penetrative) role was associated with masculinity, higher social status, and adulthood, while the passive role was associated with femininity, lower social status, and youth”
Author:It is important to list some of the calture difference between Greek and Roman art that was directly affected art both in early years and in today art. In the Roman world Law where set that controlled its citizens. Such as: Man-child born to Free Man (Not slaves) was strictly off limits as lovers to adult men.(5) And as early as 2nd centrey BC Male-Male rape had been out lawed. (6)And one very important fact that gay marriage (marriage between male & male, young or older) was excepted in early Roman Empire but become disapproved later on .
In both Greek and Roman one thing is clear. That age was not important it was simply they act of sex that was the key factor.
So what if any sugifactes is ancient Roman and Greek art, as colour did not enter homosexualiy type art till around 1000 AD or at lest in any significant term. It was the culturally trends that where carried on that would influeance the types of colours used in art and there meanings. As well as effecting many of today’s cultural taboos that continue even with in the homosexual community, such as underage gay sex and attraction to young people.
(1)Revel & Riot,2011.Abrief History of Gay Art and Symbolisam .[Online] Avaliable at.http//www.http://revelandriot.com/lgbtq-art
(1)Halperin, David M. “Homosexuality.” The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. York University. 5 October 2010.
(1)Shapiro, Harvey Alan. 2007 The Cambridge Companion to Anchaic Greece. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2 (. pp. 90 – 91.)
(1)Shapiro, Harvey Alan.2007 The Cambridge Companion to Anchaic Greece. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, (. pp. 90 – 91.)
(2)Reed.C,2011.Art and Homosexuality A History of Ideas .Oxford.Oxford University Press( Varieties of "homosexuality" Varieties of "Art" pp.15.)
(3)Reed.C,2011.Art and Homosexuality A History of Ideas .Oxford.Oxford University Press( Varieties of "homosexuality" Varieties of "Art" pp.16.)
(4)Reed.C,2011.Art and Homosexuality A History of Ideas .Oxford.Oxford University Press( Varieties of "homosexuality" Varieties of "Art" pp.18.)
(4)Hornblower S. and Spawforth A. Oxford Classical Dictionary entry on homosexuality,Oxford,Oxford UniversityPress (p.720–723)
(5)Martial 1.24 and 12.42; Juvenal 2.117–42. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, pp. 28, 280; Karen K. Hersh, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 36; Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 151ff.
(6))Richlin A, 1993 "Not before Homosexuality", California ,University of Southern California Press in junction with The University of Chicago ( p. 561.)
(3)Reed.C,2011.Art and Homosexuality A History of Ideas .Oxford.Oxford University Press( Varieties of "homosexuality" Varieties of "Art" pp.16.)
(4)Reed.C,2011.Art and Homosexuality A History of Ideas .Oxford.Oxford University Press( Varieties of "homosexuality" Varieties of "Art" pp.18.)
(4)Hornblower S. and Spawforth A. Oxford Classical Dictionary entry on homosexuality,Oxford,Oxford UniversityPress (p.720–723)
(5)Martial 1.24 and 12.42; Juvenal 2.117–42. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, pp. 28, 280; Karen K. Hersh, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 36; Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 151ff.
(6))Richlin A, 1993 "Not before Homosexuality", California ,University of Southern California Press in junction with The University of Chicago ( p. 561.)
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