Second Saturdays: Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
Nov 8, 2014

While we eagerly await the opening of the Whitney Museum in our new location on May 1, 2015, we are exploring different downtown arts institutions on the second Saturday of every month. On our first offsite visit, teens from all over New York City joined a group of YI Leaders at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art for an afternoon of close looking and art-making. 

Kris Grey, Exhibitions and Communications Manager, walked us through the current exhibition, Classical Nudes and the Making of Queer History, highlighting certain works from ancient Greece to contemporary pieces. Through inquiry and discussion, Kris encouraged the teens to look deep into the symbolism of the paintings and see how different artists treated similar subject matter throughout time. He pointed out themes of gender and sexuality and how artists explored these ideas through different materials and subject matter. 

Through an exquisite corpse drawing activity, the group explored drawing different forms inspired by the figures we saw throughout the museum. Just as the artists in the exhibition were often influenced by classical nudes, taking a familiar image and transforming it within their own practice, we too had to adjust to the images drawn by the person before us. As we continued to add to each other’s drawings, we saw how they developed and took on new meanings, different from what we may have originally intended. Participants commented that it was much easier to experiment with drawing a nude figure after having discussed the works on view. We also noticed that many of our figures were female, which sparked a conversation about gender.

Find out more about our upcoming Second Saturday program!

By Jamie Rosenfeld, Education Assistant