Image of State Hermitage Museum courtesy Gay Tours Russia

I’m thrilled to learn that the high priestess of modern painting, Marlene Dumas, will be exhibiting portraits of pioneering gay men at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg for Manifesta 10 this June! In a press statement from Manifesta 10 published by the Art Newspaper:

“Dumas has conceived a new series of portraits of notable cultural figures, whose achievements can be celebrated above their identification as homosexual men.”

Included in her line up of portraits of creative luminaries are Oscar Wilde, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The list of artists curated by Kasper König announced to show in June is impressive. Another artist of note showing at this venue of Manifesta 10 will be the Ukrainian-born photographer Boris Mikhailov‘s new project, The Theater of War. Second Act, Time Out, (Mikhailov visited Kiev’s Maidan Independence Square, the focal point for anti-government protestors).

Untitled (plate 93), from the series ‘Die Daemmerung/At Dusk’ 1993, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin

Looking forward to Dumas’ subsequent portrait series on gay women luminaries (?).

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