Pride is not only a celebration, but also a time to reflect on both the celebrated and silenced voices of LGBTQ+ figures throughout history. It was in this vein that Centre Pompidou in Paris put on their “Over the Rainbow, Autres histoires de la sexualité dans les collections du Centre Pompidou” exhibition in June of last year. Having received the exhibition catalogue earlier in 2024, I thought it would be interesting to see how the stories told across their collections could mirror those held in the UL.

“Pas de Chance”: Jean Cocteau pushing the boundaries.

Famous for his novels, poetry, and influence on the surrealist, avant-garde and Dadaist art movement, Cocteau used provocatively (and often pornographically) blatant homoerotic sketches which frequently accompanied his works, which were, in tone, largely more subtle. The most famous of these is Le Livre Blanc (S735.c.96.164) but many works across his corpus: Les Enfants Terribles (738:45.d.90.64 ), The Blood of a Poet (S415.a.94.5), Orpheus (VID.F.COCT.3), are pervaded with homosexual undertones and imagery.

Cocteau himself never hid his bisexuality and his letters to his long-time lover Jean Marais often end with the affectionate sign off “Mon ange je te bénis” (pg. 133) and are filled with sketches charting Cocteau’s study of his lover’s profile. (Lettres à Jean Marais, 736:47.c.95.275).

As the Centre Pompidou exhibition made clear, although Cocteau was upfront about his sexuality, he still suffered from the discrimination inherent to the time, saying in Le Livre Blanc: “Mes malheurs sont venus d’une société qui condamne le rare comme un crime et nous oblige à réformer nos penchants” (p. 58).

 

Barney and Brooks: Lesbian Amazons.

In order to protest the stifling culture of oppression and prejudice, many LGBTQ+ historical figures created their own cultures and societies. This is readily seen in Natalie Clifford Barney’s Paris-Lesbos. An American expat, she saw Paris as an escape and refuge, and for her, and the set which surrounded her, Paris became emblematic, not only of sexual freedom, but also of female emancipation. The term “amazone” which came to be associated with Bailey (Pensées d’une Amazone- read online) signified both audacious femininity and a thrusting intelligence whilst also using classical allusions to point to a Sapphic lesbian heritage. In fact, in Aventures de l’esprit (739:45.d.95.144) Bailey had sketched a plan for “le salon de l’amazone”; a simultaneously allegorical and real territory that the Paris Lesbos could inhabit.

Several of these “Paris-Lesbos” were immortalised in the portraiture of Romaine Brooks, whose works Bailey frequently patronised. A large collection of these portraits can be viewed in Amazons in the Drawing Room (S405:6.a.200.5). In Women Together/ Women Apart (245:3.c.200.190) Latimer underlines the historical significance of these paintings: “These portraits ‘look back’ in more ways than one. Most obviously, the independent women… confidently return the gaze of the observer. At the same time… elite figures such as the dandy and the flâneur emerge anew” (p. 44).

Queer-zines: Written Revolution

Another area that the Centre Pompideau collections reflect our own is the focus on queer magazines as a vehicle for social change. The early work of women like Edyth Eyde (who wrote many contributions to ONE magazine and The Ladder under the pseudonym Lisa Ben- an anagram of lesbian) paved the way for the queer-zines of the 1970s and onwards. Many of these magazines also incorporated anarchist, protopunk, anti-consumerist messages and found readers all around the world, such as the British publication Sniffin’ Glue by Mark Perry, and the American periodicals Little Caesar (Denis Cooper) and Fertile La Toyah Jackson (Vaginal Davis). The UL is equally aware of the effect of these publications on LGBTQ+ social history and many of these titles and more have been uploaded to the digital archive: GALE primary sources.

The Centre Pompideau’s exhibition catalogue “Over the Rainbow, Autres histoires de la sexualité dans les collections du Centre Pompideau” (S950.c.202.344) is filled with many more stories and figures of queer history and art, and very much worth a read!

For more general reading, the UL collections boast copies of Archives des Movements LGBT+ : Une histoire des luttes de 1890 à nos jours (S950.b.201.5499), Pink Ink (read online), Broadcasting It: an encyclopaedia of homosexuality in film, radio and TV in the UK, 1923-1993 (LSF_MAIN), and the Pink Papers: an annotated bibliography of lesbian and gay journals (PRL.244.2). For a similar style catalogue on Trans Art and its influence throughout history, check out Trans/ Décor 3 (C220.c.7381).

Happy Pride!

Eleanor Chapman-Drake