Special Features Index

Bill Travis: Icons of Desire

	slide 1 of 8     Untitled (4" x 6", 2009) Bill Travis enjoyed a career as a professor of art history at the University of Michigan, Dearborn before he became a full-time artist in 2004. Since then, his work has been included in more than fifty exhibitions. Travis has appropriated some aspects of Byzantine icons in several series including Icons of Desire, which features homoerotic images of men, many nude or nearly nude. Using a technique he invented, Travis transfers photographs to gilt boards, allowing the gold to shine through while also giving the images a dream-like radiance. Travis discussed his work with us from his home and studio in New York City.

© 2009 Bill Travis and glbtq, Inc.

More on Bill Travis www.billtravisphoto.com Here you will find numerous galleries of the artist's work, a brief biography, and contact information for Bill Travis.     Related Encyclopedia Entries American Art: Gay Male, Post-Stonewall After Stonewall, American gay male art underwent a radical transformation as artists came out and began to treat gay themes openly and directly. Botticelli, Sandro Renowned for his linear finesse and richly colored, meticulous paintings, Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli produced profound religious works, astute portraits, and poetic adaptations of classical mythology, all of which encourage a suggestively queer response. Caravaggio The most original painter of early seventeenth-century Europe, Caravaggio imbues his art with homoeroticism. Contemporary Art Contemporary Art, which designates new currents in art since 1970, is identified with postmodernism; during this period an art addressing gay and lesbian identity emerged. Leonardo da Vinci One of the greatest painters in the history of art and an outstanding empirical scientist, Leonardo was haunted by his illegitimacy and rumors of homosexuality. List, Herbert German photographer Herbert List is best known for his images of young men and boys, which combine eroticism with an avant garde sensibility. Lynes, George Platt American photographer George Platt Lynes made his fame as a fashion and portrait photographer, but his greatest work may have been his dance images and male nudes. Michelangelo Buonarroti The most famous artist who ever lived, Michelangelo left an enormous legacy in sculpture, painting, drawing, architecture, and poetry; while the artist's sexual behavior cannot be documented, the homoerotic character of his drawings, letters, and poetry is unmistakable. Photography: Gay Male, Pre-Stonewall Although sparse in images documenting the gay community, pre-Stonewall gay male photography blurs the boundaries between art, erotica, and social history. Photography: Gay Male, Post-Stonewall Post-Stonewall gay male photography merits recognition for its contribution to fine art, documentation, photo-journalism, and advertising, as well as erotica. Subjects of the Visual Arts: Nude Males Throughout much of history, the nude male figure was virtually the only subject that could be used to articulate homoerotic desire in publicly displayed works of art, as well as those works of art intended for private "consumption."

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