#DrawingPride Day 15: #Pansexual 1992 - I was 17, and drew this portrait of Leonard Bernstein from a
#DrawingPride Day 15: #Pansexual 1992 - I was 17, and drew this portrait of Leonard Bernstein from a photo I saw for the cover of my high school’s literary magazine. His wild, passionate, perfectly reckless music that channeled so much of the anxious, fast-changing spirit of America was QUEER. He was queer. Everyone knew it. But no one really knew how to talk about it, so it became a footnote. It’s an aspect of his legacy that’s framed separately from his art and his contributions to society. Even though it was probably his sexuality that drove him, that released his creativity, that made him who he was. Which is why I am really disappointed by the @skirball_la’s single mention of his sexuality in their current retrospective on his life and work (which is otherwise excellent.) SWIPE RIGHT to see the signage. It presents his sexuality to us like a problematic skin condition. In reality: Leonard and his wife Felicia established an open marriage that suited them, and except for a short separation near the end, they stayed together for 25 years and raised three kids. They were married until she died. It was rocky, and it sounds like L really did go for the boys, but he and Felicia loved each other (letters express it quite clearly), and unless you apply a really starchy definition of heterosexual death-do-us-part marriage, I think that their relationship can be called a relative success. Yet, this sign only makes mention of: His “complicated” double life – Hiding his passions from public view – Felicia resigning to accommodate his sexuality – The separation and tragic end to the marriage – and no mention of his male companions. Some were famous in their own right, but in this summation of his love life they might as well have been faceless distractions. WTF? He didn’t come from a time when people identified as Pansexual, or rarely even bisexual. Maybe he was? However we might choose to assess his sexuality, it was clearly a huge part of his being. And it doesn’t make sense to downplay its importance as we try to understand his art and his genius. #queer #queerartist #leonardbernstein #pride #pride2018 #queerhistory #lgbt #lgbtq #bierasure #classicalmusic #composer -- source link
#pansexual#bisexual#bierasure#queer artist#queer music#classical music#conductor#composer#modern classical#skirball#museum#drawing#portrait#leonard bernstein#pride2018#drawingpride