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Sites of refuge, connection, creation, resistance and loss: the queer bar and nightclub in the twentieth century
Borders were marked and real; vice laws, police, and organised crime representatives controlled our movements in and out of our ‘countries
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Grafting shadows
This essay was first published in NGV Triennial 2023, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
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The Mocking of Christ
Orazio Gentileschi
Born in Tuscany, Orazio Gentileschi was the son of the Florentine goldsmith, Giovanni Battista di Bartolomeo Lomi.
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Delphos
Mariano Fortuny
Originally born in Spain, Mariano Fortuny relocated to Venice with his family in 1889, where he remained for the rest of his life.
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The influence of nature
Art Nouveau is a decorative style that thrived between 1890 and 1914 throughout Europe and the United States
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Sèvres Porcelain Factory Eleven figures from The Scarf Dance, table centrepiece (Le Jeu de l’Écharpe)
The Scarf Dance (Le Jeu de l’Écharpe) series of porcelain figures by the Sèvres manufactory has become one of the most iconic expressions of the Art Nouveau style, embodying the…
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Queering the family portrait: Jacopo Amigoni’s portrait of Farinelli and friends
When Charles Burney, the English music historian, visited the famous singer Carlo Broschi, called Farinelli, at his villa in Bologna in 1770, he observed: ‘He seems very much to regret…
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Queering the nation, querying the history of Black portraiture: Zanele Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama as a healing ritual
Among South African artist and ‘visual activist’ Zanele Muholi’s self-portraits, the series titled Ntozakhe (Parktown) contains two main interwoven narratives, both of which have their foundations in South Africa’s racial…
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The rise and fall of Glyn Philpot
In 1999, J. G. P. Delaney’s biography of Glyn Philpot used the ‘H’ word for the first time in writings on this prominent British portraitist, and religious and genre painter&#
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Gothic snowflake
It’s February 2008 and Alexander McQueen is presenting one of his now-renowned collections in Paris evocatively titled The Girl Who Lived in the Tre
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A Studio of Their Own: Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani
Lavinia Fontana of Bologna (1552 -1614) is considered the first professional woman painter of Renaissance Italy, and proved an inspirational role model for her compatriot, the painter, printmaker, draughtswoman and…
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Transforming Worlds: Change and Tradition in Contemporary India
Simultaneously moving ahead and standing still, India is a country of immense complexities, inherent contradictions and deep spiritual and philosophical mores.
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Kai-awase: the shell-matching game
The origins of Kai-awase Kai-awase (貝合わせ), the game of ‘matching shells’, is included among a number of aristocratic pastimes belonging to the category monoawase (物合わせ), a ‘competitive comparison among things’…
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Goya’s Visions
The universality of Goya’s art lies in his pursuit of truth, making his observations of society and human nature as relevant today as they were in his own tim
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Rebels: The Life-changing Women’s Movement Behind a Prison Medal
Dr Maria Quirk investigates the events and people behind one of the biggest global activist movements, through a range of works in the NGV Collection connected to women’s suffrage, the…