ART BEAT

Nation’s Largest LGBT Museum Cancels “Men In Living Rooms” Exhibit For Being Too Graphic

The largest LGBT museum in America has canceled an photography exhibit after the institution’s board of directors decided it was overly graphic, reports the South Florida Gay News.

The Stonewall National Museum in Fort Lauderdale had originally planned to exhibit four images from Jeff Larson’s “Men in Living Rooms” series this month, but canceled the show immediately after the artist’s reception. (The four images originally on view, Numbers 1-4 above, do not depict full nudity, but three of the subjects are somewhat exposed and one is in fetish gear.)

The museum maintains it was only shown two images before agreeing to the exhibit and that neither of those works was included in the display. The concern, it seems, was that photos of doughy middle-aged gay men sprawled on their Lay-Z-Boys might not be appropriate for school groups, who comprise a large section of Stonewall’s visitors. “The museum, library and archives have thousands of wonderful, provocative and explicit pieces and Stonewall is proud to share and exhibit them,” said museum chair Tom Tambor.”The issue is how best to do so, and also best work to contribute to student LGBT education.”

On his website, Larson explains the works “explore my concept of the ‘Everyman’ in his own space… The environment may, but in many instances does not, define him.” He contends Stonewall was being “political” in shuttering the show: “I did everything that they wanted prior to even hanging the exhibit,” he told the Huffington Post. “But because somebody felt uncomfortable with the images, they took them down.”

We’re more concerned that young patrons could be scarred by the subjects’ questionable decorating choices.

Photos: Jeff Larson

 

 

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