By Carl Grauer
Located in Hudson, NY
Portrait painting of LGBTQ icon, Barbara Gittings
Entitled: "Barbara Gittings (Mother)"
Painted by Carl Grauer in 2019
Oil and gold leaf on board
20 x 32 inches, 20 x 16 inches when closed
Can rest on a surface or can be hung with two d-rings that are installed on the back
This painting was made by Poughkeepsie, NY based artist, Carl Grauer, in 2019. It is part of the artist's latest series, The Lavender Temple of Their Most Fabulous, painted in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Here the artist depicts LGBTQ activist, Barbara Gittings, on a gold leaf triptych frame resembling a Catholic altarpiece. Gittings is further sanctified with a glowing gold leaf halo while holding a copy of "The Ladder". Scenes of homosexual rights protests are featured on the left and right side of the folding triptych. When closed, the painting measures 20 x 16 inches and depicts two female symbols on the front. The piece can be shown unfolded either resting on a surface or by hanging it with the two d-rings that are installed on the back.
About Barbara Gittings:
Barbara Gittings was a LGBTQ+ activist whose contributions had a significant impact on LGBTQ+ acceptance and rights in the United States. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1932 while her father served as a U.S. diplomat, she was the organizer of the New York chapter of the Daughter of Bilitis (DOB), the first US national lesbian organization and served as editor of the DOB magazine, The Ladder, from 1963-1966. In the 1960s, Gittings co-organized picket lines to raise awareness about the ban on employment of gay people by the U.S. government, the country’s largest employer at the time. She also was part of the movement to persuade the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which they stopped listing as a mental disorder in 1973. Her childhood experiences of finding very little literature or information about being gay inspired her to have a lifelong involvement with libraries, especially the American Library Association (ALA), to promote positive LGBTQ+ literature in libraries. She passed away in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania in 2007 and has awards from the ALA and Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) named after her.
“Equal treatment — no more, no less — is what we want! And compassion— which many homosexuals gladly swallow because they think it represents an improvement in attitudes toward them — is not equal treatment.”
– Barbara Gittings
More about the series:
In tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, Poughkeepsie based artist Carl Grauer debuts The Lavender Temple of Their Most Fabulous, a new series depicting notable figures of the LGBTQ+ movement. Portraits of gay rights advocates, such as Harvey Milk...
Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
