Sunday

Smoking Leather Man with a Leather Jacket, Cap, and Beard, 11x14 inches oil on canvas panel by Kenney Mencher



Smoking Leather Man with a Leather Jacket, Cap, and Beard, 11x14 inches oil on canvas panel by Kenney Mencher   

https://www.kenney-mencher.net/


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Leather as a gay subculture traces its roots back to the appearance of US biker gangs in the 1940s and 50s. Leathers were practical, but the rugged masculinity of biker culture imbued the material with an allure that spoke to men interested in men. Among gay men, leather was also a rejection of the tropes of effeminacy and passivity that homosexuality had accrued since the mid 19th century, a disavowal of the “sweater queens” – well-to-do, preppy gay men – of the time. “Leather was everything that the self-consciously effeminate homosexuals weren’t. They were some of the first gay men to reclaim masculinity,” says Eric Chaline, author and historian of gay sadomasochism.


This painting was done in the 'alla prima' method. The alla prima is an Italian phrase that means 'at first attempt'. It refers to a wet-on-wet approach whereby wet paint is applied to previous layers of still-wet paint, often in a single sitting. Over the years, the technique has been adopted and adapted by artists from Van Gogh to Velázquez.


In particular I try to approach painting in several ways, I want the drawing skills, color, and anatomy to be accurate but I also try to make the compositions more interesting by avoiding a “bull’s eye” (symmetrical) composition in favor of a more exciting slightly off center or “asymmetrical” composition.  I’m also attempting to work with brush work and thick and thin paint in a more stylized and calligraphic way.  I want the paint to be thickest where the light is the brightest and thinner in the darker areas.  The direction of the brush strokes is meant to follow and amplify the contours of the forms and make it feel more tangible.


The subject matter of most of my work is usually blatantly homoerotic or at the very least queer.  I’m trying to ally with other queer and gay creators in representing people who are often marginalized by the rest of the world and make art that speaks to a community that often is silenced.


A bit of stuff about me.


I was born in Brooklyn February of 1965.  During much of my childhood I lived in Brooklyn, the Bronx, upstate NY, Sarasota, Florida and Manhattan.  (Both my mother and father divorced and remarried.)  The real hero of my childhood is my older brother Marc who literally changed my diapers, acted as my protector and as my role model.


I started to learn to paint and draw when I was six or seven years old and was convinced that I would be an artist from that age on.


As a teen at the High School of Art and Design I got my best training in Irwin Greenberg’s class where he taught me how to draw, oil paint and watercolor. I also attended classes at the Cooper Union and Art Students League.      


My parents threw me out in my senior year of high school, so I earned my GED and worked construction on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  It was a rough time but my older brother and his partner Kirk rescued me by inviting me to move with them to Cincinnati, Ohio to live and study.   While a college student, I worked in restaurants and painted as much as I could.   After a year at the University of Cincinnati, I went back to the Bronx where I finished college at CUNY Lehman.  Lehman is a fantastic college.


After completing my undergraduate studies, I lived in California and then Ohio completing my two masters’ degrees in Art History and Studio Art.  After school I was lucky enough to have dual careers as an exhibiting artist and tenured professor. 


In 2014 I began to work on paintings with a strong homoerotic content. Despite excellent sales and well received shows, the galleries I worked with wouldn’t show my new queer work, so I’ve been successfully working mainly directly with my collectors.  This change has freed me and allowed me to focus on themes and subjects that, in the past, were rejected or resulted in censorship.


Things are going great!  In 2016, after eighteen years of teaching art history and studio courses, I resigned a tenured professorship to pursue painting full time.

Saturday

Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 526-47 CE Byzantine Style

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Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 526-47 CE
Byzantine Style











Form: This central plan structure has an octagonal shape and two levels.  The arches walls and floors are all covered with ornate and intricate Byzantine style mosaic and tile work.  Arches and some vaulting are used and the center even has a dome, which from the exterior looks like an octagons full of windows that flood the interior with light. Eight large piers alternate with columned niches to define precisely the central space and to create a many layered design.  Nevertheless, the technology used to construct San Vitale is not quite as advanced as Hagia Sophia although the walls were lightened by the use of hollow pots in its interior.Iconography:  San Vitale reflects Byzantine influence and technological creativity. St. Vitale is the major Justinian monument in the West. It was probably built as a testament to the power of Orthodoxy in the declining kingdom of the Ostrogoths. He tries to establish a place where there are severe Christian Churches (people were forced to convert to Christianity).
Context:  On the second level of the ambulatory, is a special gallery reserved for women. This was a typical custom of Jewish religious worship. The reason for this, was to segregate the males from the females in order for them to pray with greater devotion.
For more details of  San Vitale go here.


Emperor Justinian and his Attendants
mosaic on north wall of the apse
Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 526-47 CE
Byzantine Style
Empress Theodora and Her Attendants.
mosaic on south wall of the apse
Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 526-47 CE
Byzantine Style
Form:  The interior of St. Vitale, is similar to the Pantheon and Hagia Sophia.  The design includes an enormous amount of different colored marble and all the other surfaces are decorated with mosaic or tile.  The ornamentation in the church's interior looks Islamic or Arabic although it predates Islam. The figures are stylized in a typical Byzantine mode.  The heads are too large and the bodies are covered completely with drapery that does not reveal the anatomy beneath.   It also shares some elements from the Arch of Constantine, the heads are big and there's no Contrapposto (liberal movement in figures).  The facial anatomy is stylized.  The face is also elongated and the nose meets the bridge of the brows and the eyebrows actually go directly into the nose.  These are some of the elements that become standardized in Byzantine Manuscript.
Stokstad discusses the reverse perspective of the image which basically is a denial of the illusionistic systems of Roman art that are apparent in the mosaics and frescoes of Pompeii.
Iconography:  Both the empress's and emperor's mosaics face one another across the apse and each holds one component of the eucharist.  Justinian holds the tray and the wafer which symbolizes the body of Christ.  In his twelve companions, which are roughly the equivalent to Jesus' twelve apostles, the emperor also has two symbols of the power he holds: on the earth he has his army to support him at his right hand.  Notice they have the implied mandate of the power of Constantine because of the chi ro on their shield.  (Here's what a chi ro is)
Chi-Rho n, pl Chi-Rhos [chi + rho] (1868): a Christian monogram and symbol formed from the first two letters X and P of the Greek word for Christ--called also Christogram What is Chi Ro? Chi Ro, pronounced (KI ROW), is probably the oldest monogram used for the name of Christ. It was found written along the walls of the catacombs, which were the cemeteries of the early Christians and also a place where they held their secret meetings. The Chi and Ro are the first two letters in the Greek word for Christ. Our CH was one letter in Greek and was shaped like our X. The Greek R had the shape of our P. By combining the RO or P to one arm of the Chi we get XP. As a pre- Christian symbol, the Chi Ro signified good fortune. The Chi Ro became an important Christian symbol when adopted by the Roman Emperor Constantine, representing the first two letters in the name Christ. According to Church Father Eusebius, on the eve of the Battle of Milvan Bridge, the Emperor saw the emblem in a dream, with the inscription "With this symbol, you shall conquer." According to the story, the battle was won. In return for the victory, Constantine erected Christian Churches. The symbol was the standard of the Emperor's army, prominently displayed on the Emperor's labarum, or battle standard. 
For his spiritual power he has the members of the clergy on his left.  Directly to his left is the archbishop Maximus whose face is almost as defined and unique as Justinian's. Theodora is surrounded by her ladies in waiting and the local clergy as well and Theodora holds the wine which symbolizes the blood of christ.  On her gown is an image of the three Magi carrying their gift to the newborn Jesus.  Both are wearing royal purple and both are placed at the center of the image.  The placement and the icons they carry and wear were meant to communicate to the viewer that the emperor and empress were the church and the only path to salvation.  This links theological and political power as a single theocratic unit.
Context:  (Stokstad gives a much more detailed discussion of the iconography in the Byzantine chapter.)
For more details of  San Vitale go here.




Capital, Church of San Vitale,
Ravenna, Italy 526-47 CE
Byzantine Style
Form:  This capital at first appears to be an almost Tuscan or Doric capital but on closer inspection it is the correction of the original Greek and Roman orders.  Between the arch and the capital is an additional structure called an impost block.  The designs on the capital are much more ornate and less solid looking then its predecessors and combines carving, polychroming and mosaic.  The over all intricate organic patterning and weaving of the ornamentation is abstract and overly ornate. Iconography:  The organic vine like qualities refer to the symbol of Christianity as a vine that keeps spreading.   In the center of the column's capital and impost block are cruciform symbols.  Notice on the capital, the Greek cross formed of four circles that looks like the domed greek cross plan discussed on page 324 The Elements of Architecture, Multiple-Dome Church Plans.  The use of classical ornamentation and then the obvious changing of it is symbolic of the fusion of the Roman and Greek classic ideals wedded to the culture and decorative forms of the east as well as the iconography of Christianity.

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Friday

 

One Must Live It: Final weekend of Roundtables and Pop Ups
Image Description: A gif cycles through images of some of the artists and designers in the pop-up. They wear their clothing -- bright, colorful, painted, sculptural, kaleidoscopic pieces.
One Must Live It: Fashion Pop Up 

Saturday and Sunday will culminate with a fashion pop-up shop featuring queer designers and artists from NYC and beyond. Swing through, hang out, and shop from 1-5pm at the museum. Artists including Chella ManRebirth GarmentsMelodie StaccatoVincenttaMalcom-xBettsB.Anele and Telfar Tival will bring their wares to the museum, where guests can not only enjoy the work, but take it home for themselves. Plus on Sunday, the inimitable Telfar Tival also known as Dollnxtdoor will be dj’ing all afternoon. Hit the town, grab some brunch, bring your friends and come through!

These designers and artists all use fashion as a site to explore transness, how clothing can be a source of safety and joy in an ableist world, and how photography and fashion can function as a vital tool for self representation and preservation in BIPOC, queer, disability communities. 

Some items are free for Black queer community members, courtesy of the artists. Join us and experience the joy of liberatory design.
 
Saturday, July 30th
1-5PM ET
Image description: A poster: The left hand side reads: Viscose Journal Presents: Trans Fashion Working Roundtable. Panelists: Tracey "Africa" Norman Connie Fleming Dara Allen Cruz Valdez, Moderated by Tourmaline. Sunday 31st of July 4pm-6pm followed by reception music by dollnxtdoor. Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art 26 Wooster Street New York. Booking essential via Leslie-Lohman website. Wheelchair accessible, ASL and cart provided on-site. The right hand side of the poster is a black and white image of a model on the runway.
Fashion Pop-Up and Roundtable and Reception with Viscose Journal 

We’re ending our Summer convenings with a show out. This roundtable will bring together key fashion industry figures to discuss histories of trans work in the fashion industry: trailblazing models Tracey “Africa” Norman and Connie Fleming alongside contemporary industry leaders photographer Cruz Valdez and Interview Mag fashion director, Dara Allen. The conversation will be moderated by activist and artist Tourmaline, who recently co-designed the gender-inclusive “Collective Opulence Celebrating Kindred" swimwear collection for Chromat. The talk will be followed by drinks and more fashion pop-up shopping time!

Sunday, July 31th: In-person 
1-5PM, Roundtable starts at 3PM
This programming also serves as the opportunity to preview content from our annual print publication The Archive, this time created in collaboration with the fashion criticism publication @viscose_journal. In-line with Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm and accompanying programming, this issue will pay special attention to the intersecting topics of transness, fashion, and archival knowledge. It is slated for publication in partnership with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in Autumn 2022 and is co-edited by Viscose Founding Editor-in-Chief, Jeppe Ugelvig with fashion theorist Alex Esculapio, and writer and critical theorist Che Gossett.
Museum Accessibility
For in person visits, five external steps lead to our main entrance: a wheelchair lift is available. All galleries are wheelchair-accessible.
There is a single-occupancy accessible restroom located behind the visitor services desk. 
All restrooms are gender-neutral. 

Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm Exhibition Accessibility
Audio tour available here (downloading the Gesso app is required)
Large print didactics are available at the front desk.
Braille handouts are also available at the front desk for Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm, that include the curator’s essay and information about upcoming programs.
Access information for each program is on its EventBright page. You may also always email morgaine@leslielohman.org to connect around access needs and desires. 
The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art provides a platform for artistic exploration through multi-faceted queer perspectives. We embrace the power of the arts to inspire, explore, and foster understanding of the rich diversity of LGBTQIA+ experiences. Through annual exhibitions, public programs, educational initiatives, artist fellowships, and a journal, LLMA forefronts the interrelationship of art and social justice for LGBTQIA+ communities in NYC and beyond. Our collection includes over 25,000 objects spanning 4 centuries of queer art.

One Must Live It, In Conversation with Lorenza Böttner is made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation and contribution from Kartell and INNSiDE by Meliã New York Nomad.

Programming is produced in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Exchange, NYU Center for Disability Studies, Proclaiming Disability Arts, and Viscose Journal with support from ACLS, an NYU Steinhardt Diversity Innovation Grant.
 
The Museum is generously supported, in part, by public funds from Mellon Foundation, The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. Programmatic support is also provided by the Achilles Family Fund; Booth Ferris Foundation; Keith Haring Foundation; John Burton Harter Foundation; and the Henry Luce Foundation. Individual support is proudly provided by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art's Board of Trustees and Global Ambassadors.
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The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is open Wednesday 12-5pm and Thursday - Sunday, 12-6 pm.

Poster Print, Full Story at Eleven, by Kenney Mencher (A tense homoerotic narrative portraying a nude and a clothed male figure.)

 THIS IS A REPRODUCTION POSTER PRINT

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This is based on an original oil painting by Kenney Mencher that is no longer available.  Interestingly enough, this painting was lost or stolen while it was being delivered to my collector.  So if you see it in someone's home, please get in touch!


I have started to make paintings with multiple figures in them to create psychological and sexual tension and create a story.  I'm hoping that people will make up a narrative or story about the work based on their own experiences.


I think I’m fulfilling the needs of an audience and group of people that appreciate the point of view I’m promoting. I also paint non-binary people, black people, and other people of color. I paint for these audiences because they are under-represented as subjects, and I feel like it’s a supportive thing to do, and also can be a politically powerful gesture. I actually think I was pandering more to straight men back when I was painting pin-up style women. I was really uncomfortable doing that, because it felt like I was perpetuating a system that degraded women.


If I really needed a justification for painting LGBTQ+ subjects, I would just point out that I have had some skin in the game. When I was young man, I had multiple same-sex partners, and today I’m still attacked by homophobes for being gay, even though they don’t know anything about me, or the complexities of my experience. On top of that, most of my friends, family, and social acquaintances are part of the LGBTQ+ community. In a way, I guess I’m painting more for those friends and family members than anyone else.



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Museum-quality posters made on thick and durable matte paper. Add a wonderful accent to your room and office with these posters that are sure to brighten any environment.


• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil

• Paper weight: 5.57 oz/y² (189 g/m²)

• Giclée printing quality

• Opacity: 94%

• ISO brightness: 104%

What’s important about Bonaventura Berlinghieri’s altarpiece depicting St. Francis?

 

Probably the main idea why we study Bonaventura Berlinghieri’s is altarpiece is because it was created in a transitional time between the Gothic period of time and the early Renaissance. Because of its placement at a pivotal time and its subject matter, which is St. Francis of Assisi, in both sets the standards as well as represents the changes that occur both physically in terms of how things look and changes in thought during that period.

The physical qualities of altar painting from before 1300 or so in Europe are heavily influenced by a style that was developed in what we call the Byzantine Empire starting as early as the fourth century, especially in Greece and the region we know today as Turkey. There are many physical and visual characteristics that this altarpiece represents.

This altarpiece was probably made on a piece of recycled what or panel. Most likely, it was assembled from a series of older pieces of furniture or panels of what that had time to petrify, another term for “age.” The reason why very old wood was used is that it was more stable than new work or greener would because it contained less moisture and the wood becomes harder and more stable as it ages.
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The panel was then coated with a series of alternating layers of a glue referred to as “gesso,” which is basically boiled animal hide which creates a type of glue or binder. Affixed to the panel with this gesso was plaster and canvas. Plaster is made usually from calcium carbonate also referred to as marble dust, and has a brilliant white sheen to it which allows for a consistent smooth surface on top of the wood that the paint can adhered to without any kind of chemical interactions occurring.
The paint used on the surface of this panel was made out of a medium, a medium is literally a type of paint, called egg tempera. Egg tempera uses a combination of water, glue, and sometimes the egg whites or egg yolks to create a kind of binder that glues particles of pigment permanently to the surface of a panel painting. If you’ve ever tried to clean a plate that has dried egg on it, you’ll know why it makes a good medium.
The pigments, also referred to as colorants or dyes, were often made by grinding up minerals or semiprecious stones. Sometimes other substances such as dyes made from plant or vegetal matter would be used as color mixed with the medium of egg and glue.
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This type of medium, egg tempera, would then be applied in small patches or hatch marks, that would be layered over time to create shading, tone, and color.

Egg tempera was the primary type of color or medium used up until around 1400 when oil paint began to be used more often.

The physical size of this altarpiece is also part of why we study it. It’s a little bit taller than 5 feet and so the central figure, which represent St. Francis, is life-size for the time. The composition could be described as bilaterally symmetrical. Which means that the figures St. Francis is flanked by an equal number of scenes or images on either side of him making the overall image appear even or symmetrical. Furthermore, the composition is subdivided on either side of Francis with three smaller scenes in which he appears over and over again.
The way in which Francis and the scenes are painted is not very realistic or illusionistic. The anatomy of the figures is stiff and un–lifelike. We can recognize that these are people however, they are not standing in naturalistic poses such as the “contrapposto” pose that we saw in ancient Greece and Rome. The proportions of the figure are slightly elongated, and the proportions of the face are also stylized or incorrect according to today’s standards of realism.



The proportions of the face for all the figures, adheres to a type of style, or visual convention, that comes from the Byzantine style. Sometimes this is referred to as “maniera greca.” Roughly translated as “the Greek manner,” the proportions of the face in the maniera greca style are that the eyes are located a little too far up in the fore head, the nose is a little too long and ends too far down the face, and the mouth is located a little too far towards the bottom of the chin.

The scenes are not very realistic in terms of the illusion of space. The buildings and the figures sizes are not in proportion to one another. There is no illusion of space, there is no background behind the figures that would contain things like a horizon line, clouds, or a change in scale as things move further back. Today, we are used to something called linear perspective. This makes all of the parallel lines and straight lines on buildings makes sense to us, however, linear perspective was not used until 1400 and that’s why these buildings look odd. It is almost as if all of the figures are standing up against the front of the picture in a single line and the buildings, the small hill in one of the scenes, are not the right sizes when compared to the figures.



There is also no light and shadow, or shading, that describe the figures for the buildings in a realistic way. There are some tonal variations or shading variations however, these are almost cartoons of what light and shadow look like and this will change about 70 years later after this altar was completed.

The background of the altar and of the scenes on the left and right sides are made with thin sheets of gold glued onto the background and have very little or no variation in them.

All of these distortions, stylizations, and rendering are part of a consistent tradition that had lasted for nearly 1000 years until the 1300s.



Moving from physical description to an analysis of the content and meaning of this altar, it’s important to realize that the unrealistic way in which this was painted is part of its meaning. When Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, began to be organized and codified in the fourth century, eventually there was a controversy concerning the use of images because of the second commandment which states that, one should not worship idols or may graven images. Basically, what this means is that, Catholics believed that it was essentially wrong to make images of religious figures because of the idea that they might be worshiped as idols. This is referred to as the iconoclastic controversy. Eventually it was decided that the creation of “icons” and religious art was acceptable because it allowed people to learn from the imagery.

As the Roman Catholic Church became more powerful, and there was a call or a demand for religious imagery, a kind of cartoon style, the maniera greca, was chosen because it was not illusionistic and therefore not like the Greeks and Romans “pagan” style of art. Probably, also because it could be mistaken for something real.

The creation of religious art and religious icons such as this altarpiece, was then seen as a way of educating people about religion, and the religious figures one was supposed to emulate. By the time of St. Francis of Assisi, some social and economic changes began to occur. St. Francis represents many of these changes in the viewpoints of Catholics at this time and so this painting of him and the scenes of his life represent many of the concepts that the common important during the Renaissance.

For example, St. Francis to stands in the center of the painting, was important reformer of the Catholic Church. He is represented here with a haircut that’s called a monks tonsure. This style of cutting a religious person’s hair was meant as a way to make them humble because it was considered to be a less attractive hairstyle than a full head of hair. In this way it would humble people involved in the church, by making priests and monks less attractive. Part of this is probably because priests and monks at this time were supposed to be celibate.

St. Francis also holds a book which is very similar to the “book of the world” or “libris mundi” that is depicted in many representations of Jesus from the Byzantine Empire. He also has wounds on his hands and feet, called the “stigmata,” which were bestowed upon him by God in honor of his religious sacrifice and integrity. People who received the stigmata were thought to be blessed by God because the wounds were in emulation of the ones that Christ received on the cross.


Francis is represented wearing a simple robe, barefoot, and a Baroque belt with three knots in it.  This clothing represents the main ideas behind the order of Catholicism called the Franciscan order he began. The main tenets or concepts are poverty, chastity, and obedience. Francis is not wearing expensive clothing and this is part of the value system he believed in.

The life and times of St. Francis are depicted almost as if they are a comic book on his right and left hand sides. The various scenes represent important episodes in which Francis acted in a way that led him to a kind of spiritual enlightenment.

Here’s a summary of the main events that led to Francis becoming a monk. Francis was born into a fairly wealthy family when she left to go fight a crusade against heretics and infidels. At one point he was taken hostage or prisoner and while imprisoned he had visions and visitations by spiritual entities that instructed him that he should “rebuild God’s house.”

After Francis was freed, as he was returning home Francis gave away his cloak and other worldly possessions. He then proceeded to give away many of his father’s possessions all in emulation of the charity and non-materialism that Jesus espoused in the New Testament.

After he did this, Francis was given the right to start a new type of “order” in the Catholic Church now called the Franciscan Order.  The main concepts being, poverty chastity and obedience but more importantly a life given to acting or emulating Jesus Christ when he was on the earth. There are other stories after she becomes a monk in which he receives the stigmata from a type of angelic creature called the seraphim. We see this in the upper left-hand corner of the altarpiece. There are also other scenes of Francis is good works circulating around him one of most notable is his sermon to the animals in the garden in which she expressed the idea that while animals may not have a soul like humans have they are part of God’s creation and should be honored and should be aware of God.

The take away from all this, and why this altarpiece and St. Francis are particularly important is that this altarpiece represents a fusion of some of the traditional imagery and art styles from earlier periods with some new radical ideas concerning religious reform that Francis brought about. The most important being that Francis advocated that all people should live and behave in such a way that they are copying or living life in the way that Jesus would.



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