Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts

Pictures and Passions is a sweeping panorama of art by, for, or about gays and lesbians across the world and across time, from Europe and North America to China and Australia, from the Stone Age to the Stonewall riot and beyond. This book breaks down the walls of prejudice and silence that have long imprisoned a visual heritage rich in beauty, passion, and humor.

Through prehistoric and classical times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Stonewall, and today, James M. Saslow explores the flowering of lesbian and gay art and experience. Included here are non-Western cultures (Asia and Islam), hostile as well as positive images, traditional media such as painting and sculpture, and modern commercial and mass media such as magazines and photography.

• Winner of the Lambda Literary Awards for Gay Men's Studies and Lesbian and Gay Photography/Visual Arts