Outlaw Representation by Richard Meyer

Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (Second-hand in very good condition) 
 
From the U.S. Navy's 1934 confiscation of a painting of sailors on shore leave to contemporary culture wars over funding for the arts, conflicts surrounding homosexuality and creative freedom have shaped the history of modern art in America. Richard Meyer's Outlaws Representation tells the charged story of this strife through pioneering analysis of the works of gay artists and the circumstances under which these works have been attacked, suppressed, or censored outright. Focusing on the careers of Paul Cadmus, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Gran Fury, and Holly Hughes, Outlaw Representation explores how gay artists responded to the threat of censorship by producing their own "outlaw representations" of homosexuality. Instead of acquiescing to attacks on their work as indecent or obscene, these artists used the outlaw status of homosexuality to propose new forms of social, sexual, and creative life.
 
This is a controversial and landmark study about homosexuality, politics, and the censoring of art. Conflicts surrounding homosexuality and creative freedom have shaped the history of modern art in America. Outlaw Representation traces this history by showing how gay artists have both resisted and responded to the threat of censorship. It features nearly two hundred images, ranging from the work of Robert Mapplethorpe to gay liberation posters.
 
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"Smartly written, intensively researched and vigilantly argued." - Holland Cotter
 
Winner of the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in American Art, awarded by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.