“What I
love about

that picture 
is the way

the drag queen
turns the A I
circumstances
of her arrest
into an
extension  

of her camp
persona.”

. . 1 . 1.. .. »,- .— v 7 - ..~~—.. . . v.,.y,.r—>....,~._.—.>...,,.._.,. . . .

tat"-““‘

official opening of theg_Fair, Warhol’s mural was cen-
sored by officials who had it painted-over with silver
housepaint. Rather than simply allow his “Most
Wanted Men” to disappear, Warhol saved the
silkscreens from the mural and made large portraits
of each outlaw that he used to decoratehis famous
studio, The Factory, and later exhibited in both
Europe and the U.S.

When a work of art is censored, it rarely just
vanishes into thin air. More typically, the work is
‘reproduced in the press, remade by the artist, and
recirculated by a range of different audiences. I am
interested in the “afterlife” of censored works of art,
the ways in which they continue to reappear in the
wake of their suppression.

TM: Speaking of outlaws, this material is pretty hot
subject matter. Did you face any problemsiwith cen-
sorship in terms of publishing this book?

RM: Shortly after the book went
into production, I
was _

    
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  

Fe}-1'19) '

_ Above: “The Gay Deceiver”
steps daintily out in WeeGee’s famous
photograph.

'  1939 '

 

informed that the London office of Oxford
University Press would not distribute the book in
England or anywhere in Europe unless I agreed to
remove Mapplethorpe’s picture of Jesse McBride, a
1976 portrait of a naked little boy. According to a
lawyer for the press, the photograph violated two
different criminal codes, including the English
“Protection of Children” Act of 1978. Because I
refused to remove the image from the manuscript,
the London arm of Oxford University Press severed
all connections to the book. The book remains with-
out a distributor in the U.K. or Europe.

In the passage of my book devoted to Jesse
McBride, I look at how those who attacked
Mapplethorpe’s work in the late 1980s used this pho-
tograph to reinforce longstanding stereotypes of gay
men as pedophiles. Although no sexual activity is
shown (or even suggested) in the portrait, and
although the picture was commissioned by the

child’s mother who was in the room at the time of its '

taking, the very fact that Mapplethorpe had pho-
tographed a naked boy was enough, at least in the
minds of Pat Robertson and Jesse Helms, for the
photographer to be accused of child molestation.
Given this history, I wasiunwilling to remove the
portrait of Jesse McBride from Outlaw
Representation. I want readers to see that a photo-
graph of a naked body does not automatically consti-
tute pornography, even when the body at issue is that

of a child. To allow‘ ltheifsortraitiito‘ be ‘removed from ’ 

the book because of a concern about legal liability
would have been tantamount to labeling the photo-
graph obscene.

TM: Just to see the beauty and sexy heafof these
images assembled in a single book counts as a
remarkable achievement. Can you talkiabout the

importance of visual images to this_book?. I

RM: The pictureslin the book comprise a visual
archive of censored and suppressed art in the

as possible and raised money to print about fifty
of them in color so that the pictures could I
appear in the strongest possible, light. In
response to the charge that these ‘ifrnages are
obscene or indecent, I wanted to provide a
place where they might be seen again and
taken seriously as works of creative
achievement and visual complexity. I’m
perfectly happy to have readers who pri-
marily want to look at the pictures since,
in many ways, the pictures tell the story
of gay art and censorship most powerful-

ly.

. impact gay artists have had on our cul-
‘ ture. How do you think queer culture
has contributed to the history of art?

\ TM: The images remind us of the huge

 

RM: Part of what I’m arguing is
that art history cannot be fully
understood without taking homo-I

   
 
 

of a key figure like Warhol doesn’t make sense
unless you think about the queer worlds of fashion _
and design in the 1950s, of underground film in the _
1960s, and of Studio 54 in the 19705. The culture of .
homosexuality is not some sidelight to the main
story of art history but an essential part of it.

‘20th century. I fought toinclude as many images.

sexual culture into account." The career ‘