The vintage gay art of the sixties that was printed in beefcake magazines of the time often seems quite amateurish, however this example by David Angelo has a pleasing blend of technical accuracy and sensuality.
Inevitably, the model is clad in a posing pouch, a garment that often attracts derision in our own time, but the artist's treatment gives us a sense of size inside and entrapment, a straining to escape that shows us how the men of the time really saw it. Something truly erotic.
Angelo's drawing is based on a photograph of course, the model's physique and face looks rather like the great Rick Wayne.
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| David Angelo - Gunslinger |
Cowboys were big in popular culture in the sixties, replete with handsome heroes. Angelo has given this one another idealised treatment, with prominent pecs and nipples straining at his tight shirt. The gun belt fulfils a similar restraining role below the waist. This last detail was not pure invention....
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| Robert Fuller as Jess Harper in 'Laramie' |
Robert Fuller sneaking up behind John Smith in 'Laramie'
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| David Angelo - Wrestlers |
For this image of two wrestlers, Angelo has cleverly used the same stark lighting to cover up a bold erotic statement.
One of the fighters is caught in a position where he's off-balance and vulnerable. His flimsy pouch inevitably draws the eye, but it's also attracted his opponent's hand. It's groping underneath, in the shadow of his groin. This hold has nothing to do with wrestling!
In addition, the fighter in the foreground is totally naked, and the dark shadow that hides his far leg accentuates the impression that he's presenting his backside to us.
It's not simply the sexuality that is so daring, it's the homosexuality. In 1960, just putting men together in a picture was suspect.
The lattice pattern in the corner is not part of Angelo's picture, it's part of an adjacent image in a magazine spread.
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| David Angelo - Pop Star's Finale |
In 1963 when this picture was published, pop music was starting to shed its veneer of respectability with Beatlemania converting music concerts into manic, adoration events. With its focus on young love, however, it was (and still is) relentlessly heterosexual. Not many pop stars dressed in transparent shirts and matador pants like this (not yet).
Nevertheless, many gay artists tried to incorporate pop into their images. Tom of Finland's 'Ringo' openly sought to subvert the idea of straight entertainers and I suspect Angelo is doing that here too, by showing us his rear view, tensed above opened legs, raised up on tip toes. The singer seems to be ignoring his female fans, who are noisily lusting after his front profile. He's casting aside, too, the female shape of his guitar*. "Come and get me", he seems to be saying. To us, not them.
Ultimately these images fail to capture the magical attraction of pop stars, because away from the mic', he's just another bloke. I think I have seen art images of a star being seduced on stage, but I can't cite it at present. Sex in front of a horde of screaming women is a bit niche for me!
*The singer's own shape has interesting undulations at waist level, with an odd fit into his pants at the left. It's almost as if Angelo couldn't quite decide how slim, how masculine to make him look.
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| Angelo - Slave Auction |
Ever since Victorian times, the Slave Auction has been a 'go to' for artists seeking to portray gender power play and sexploitation in a semirespectable way. It fitted readily into the adoption of classical settings by gay artists seeking to avoid censure in the 50s and 60s.
Angelo's Romanesque take has a very unusual night setting, giving him an opportunity to play with light effects*. The physiques of the two spectacularly muscular men who are manacled and up for sale, are greatly flattered by it - to the benefit of their value too, I suppose.
A key ingredient in this scenario is the depiction of the slaves' emotions. One is proudly displaying himself, seemingly indifferent to the fate which might await him. His companion is, if anything, more muscular, but seems to be cast as a younger servant. He reaches forward, holding up the cloth which screens their groins (for the time being).
The bidders we can see in the audience seem to have their own favourites, suggesting these two will not remain united after the sale.
*Angelo seems to have achieved this night effect using chalk or crayon on black paper. It gives something of an etched effect. Some of the detailing is spectacular - the creases of the toga for example. Unfortunately, his characterisation of the second slave, using voluminous hair and rounded cherub cheeks is very much of it's time and doesn't work for us, even if we believed in such improbable muscularity to go with it. With a man's head and face, the whole image would work much better.
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More Angelo in Part 2
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