Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green’s modern & contemporary art blog, has an interesting post about some seemingly glaring omissions in the mainstream press regarding the sexuality of some of the world’s most famous artists. First noting that most obituaries of Robert Rauschenberg omitted the fact that he was gay when the artist died last May, Green goes on to discuss David Hockney.
The New York Times ran a story on Hockney this past Sunday discussing his move from Los Angeles in recent years and the soon to be unveiled body of work the artist has created in East Yorkshire, where he’s lived since his US departure in 2005. The article, Green points out, missed the point.
According to Green “Hockney did not leave California because the East Yorkshire landscape romantically called him home to England. Hockney left because the United States government would not allow his partner, John Fitzherbert, back into the country.” It is a shame that the Times missed the chance to put a face, a very famous face, in the center of the fight of marriage equality. Pictures of these inequalities need to be painted in the mainstream press.
