BONUS 0.12. Florine Stettheimer's Gay Salon (An Interview with Barbara Bloemink)
/For this bonus episode, we're bringing you an interview with esteemed art historian, art director, and curator Barbara Bloemink about her recently published comprehensive biography of turn-of-the-century Modernist painter Florine Stettheimer.
Stettheimer, a cousin of Natalie Clifford Barney's, painted the vibrant world of New York between the two world wars and welcomed gay, lesbian, and bisexual friends and family into her Manhattan salon at a time when it was dangerous and illegal to be out in New York. Listen on to hear Bloemink talk about Stettheimer's painting style, her relationships with the queer art elite of New York, and the ways the contemporary art world has shunned away from diving deeply into subversive and feminist painters.
Alongside her paintings of vibrant, chaotic scenes of New York life and her provocative nude self-portraits, she also painted intimate portraits of her gay and lesbian friends that frequented her salon and were given the space to be open about their sexuality. Here are a few that are featured in the book and that we mention in the conversation:
Carl Van Vechten, 1922 (Oil on Canvas), by Florine Stettheimer. Carl Van Vechten was a gay writer in the Harlem Renaissance— note the purple socks and red tie, as coded notes to queerness.
Portrait of Virgil Thomson, 1930 (Oil, and possibly ink, on canvas), by Florine Stettheimer. Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic, who composed several ballets, operas, and film scores.
Henry McBride, Art Critic, 1922 (Oil on Canvas), by Florine Stettheimer. Henry McBride (July 25, 1867 – March 31, 1962) was a gay American art critic who wrote for the New York Sun in the 1920s
Barbara Bloemink is an expert on Florine Stettheimer’s work. She has written extensively on Stettheimer and co-curated the artist’s 1995 Whitney Museum Retrospective. Formerly the director and chief curator of five art museums, including the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Bloemink has curated over seventy exhibitions, published extensively, and lectured and taught internationally on art and design.
Where To Find Barbara online:
Follow her on Facebook, where she posts about her acting and writings about the art world!
