JC Leyendecker: The Iconic Gay Artist We ALMOST Forgot
270K views · Mar 22, 2021 · Education
Comments · 748
@KazRowe · 5 years ago · pinned
Hey folks, someone kindly brought up that I should have talked a bit about some issues in Leyendecker's paintings in this video. I didn't go into this because, since there are already so many artistic analyses of his artwork out there, I wanted to focus wholly on his biography (I also planned on talking about this in a future video I'm working on, but I'd like it noted here as well). But in hindsight I do feel I should have talked about this in the video. As with nearly every Golden Age illustrator, Leyendecker's work for the Saturday Evening Post (a pointedly conservative publication of the time) suffers from a racial standpoint. Back then, the Post had a rule stating that all black people in the illustrations could only be portrayed performing acts of service. In several of the Post covers there are also Native Americans portrayed in a stereotypical and offensive manner. It's completely abhorrent. A few scholars have said that Leyendecker disliked this rule and tried to get back at it by placing these figures as the focal point of the composition. I think we'll never know for sure what his feelings were, but placing them as the focal point doesn't change the harmful stereotypes these paintings still employed. If anything, the whole focal point thing may have backfired by instead emphasizing the issues. But regardless these paintings are a problem and can't be ignored when analyzing Leyendecker's body of work. Anyway, I regret not including this in the video and I appreciate that someone brought this up to me. I was mistaken in deciding a biography video doesn't also necessitate a conversation on what an artist's work says too. But, thanks for reading!!
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@azaleaamethyst4236 · 5 years ago
Kind of iconic that the only demonstrably straight kid was the family disappointment
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@popoumu · 5 years ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS7ayV2Ac74&t=1787">29:47</a> the guy really said "all female born after 1993 can't cook... all they know is mcdonald's, charge they phone, twerk, be bisexual, eat hot chip and lie"
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@m.f.hopkins8728 · 5 years ago (edited)
Now I see why Leyendecker's illustrated men were so good-looking. He definitely had a type.<br>This is a great biographical work!
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@ievadee · 5 years ago
That scandalous tale about Adolf, oh my! Your narration and visual accompaniments were hilarious!
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@charlie2.048 · 2 years ago
"By 1904 the Leyendecker parents finally accepted that all three of their not-disowned children were probably, you know, <b>wrist flop,</b> not going to marry for...Reasons." had me cracking up.
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@leighthomp · 5 years ago
We definitely need a biopic of him and his family. I'd never heard of him until watching your videos, and I'm glad you're keeping his story alive.
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@katelynbowers2985 · 5 years ago
“Like a great ship with the bottom dropped out” ok time to cry...
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@meepMepp · 5 years ago
I really loved this video! Gay history is one of my favorite topics (for i too am gay history) so a 45 minute video about gay artists is exactly what i needed today
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@aba4055 · 5 years ago
this was fire, the extent of my previous research was wikipedia which basically says "mmmm he drew some guys and such, he had this bestest friend named charles who was his best friend for life and that is all we have to say on the matter" like ok thank you mrs.homosexual erasure
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@xavierrodriguez1370 · 5 years ago
According to my grandfather, all the important cultural trendsetters, artists, philosophers, scientists, like Leonardo da Vinci and Sophocles were gay. I thought it might be appropriate to mention.
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@niunae · 5 years ago
Don't worry the art community has not forgotten this icon! We still worship him!
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