Treasures of Gay Art from the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation

Certainly the finest book of its kind, Treasures of Gay Art from the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, this collection of gay erotic art, is an essential and gorgeous volume, and one that I will cherish and enjoy. The seeds of the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation were planted in 1968 when Fritz Lohman and Charles Leslie held a gallery show of gay erotic art in their Soho loft. In 1990 they became a foundation dedicated to preserving art which many in the art world used to destroy. The first section of the book is devoted to paintings. Lest you think this is some chaste, exclusive book one peers at with a monocle, check out Ed Cervone's "Three Sailor's". Or perhaps Patrick Angus' Hanky Panky - set in an adult movie house. Darold Perkins has taken an Arrow Shirt ad and turned it into an ad instead. Next in the Drawings and Prints section, we particularly love the Paul Cadmus on page 77; he's always been a favorite. The big shocker for me are the explicit Andy Warhol drawings on pages 118-121. I didn't know that he ever did sexual drawings. They're pretty good -- he wasn't Tom of Finland.... The next section is photography and there are some familiar names mixed in with some unfamiliar - all are striking images. The last art section is a small collection of sculptures and objects, again with fascinating genitalia. One of the most interesting things about the book is that, rather than clutter the pages with a lot of words, the editor wrote copy about each item and artist in the back of the book. So I guess you get our point, this is not a delicate art book -- it's a TLA-style art book. It's got substance, guts and plenty of hot stuff.