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Queer Art History 🌈
To celebrate Gay Pride Day, Art Explora Academy is dedicated to giving visibility to queer art and gay artists. From ancient Greek sculptors to contemporary performers, many artists have represented - and some have claimed - LGBTQ+ feelings, practices or identity. Let's celebrate love in all its forms!

Explore the visual symbols and language used by LGBTQ+ artists and communities to suggest hidden identities. Oscar Wilde and his circle famously wore a green carnation as a signifier of their identities. These flowers are just one example of the many visual symbols throughout history, which hinted at secret sexualities and identities that had been hidden. So what other coded symbols can we find in the history of queer art? How did today’s artist reference and re-use them? And how have hidden symbols transitioned to a wider and more expressive queer visual language?

Content produced byNational Galleries of Scotland

On the agenda
video - 9:22
The Queer Code: Secret Languages of LGBTQ+ Art
By: National Galleries of Scotland
video - 13:39
What Art tells us about Gender
By: The Art Assignment
video - 9:06
The Hidden Histories of Queer Art
By: National Galleries of Scotland
podcast - 12:17
Queer Culture and Art History
By: Art matters
video - 4:15
How did a saint become a gay icon?
By: Arte
video - 5:37
Wear with Pride: LGBTQ+ badges at the British Museum
By: British Museum
video - 3:51
Once upon a time… Keith Haring in the bathroom
By: Arte
video - 7:50
Queer Art: Where is the Queer Joy?
By: National Galleries of Scotland
video - 10:49
Homosexuality in Renaissance
By: L'histoire nous le dira