Finistere by Paul Cadmus

Finistère (1952)

Paul Cadmus (American, 1904-1999)

Egg tempera on pressed wood panel

10 x 13.5 in.

Whitney Museum of American Art

Finistère, or literally the end of the earth, is the westernmost part of  France. The longstanding location of a naval base, it appears repeatedly in literature and art in the first part of the twentieth century. Jean Genet's novel, Querelle de Brest, portions of Fritz Peters' novel Finistère and Paul Cadmus' painting Finistère all center on this geographic area. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art included this painting in an exhibit titled American Legends: From Calder to O'Keefe (December 22, 2012-June 29, 2014). A transcript of the audio guide stop for this painting follows.

NARRATOR: Finistère—the French region that lends this Paul Cadmus painting its name—is in the far west of Brittany, where the English Channel and the Atlantic meet.

The painting’s two main figures are young men on bicycles. Each wears nothing but a shirt and revealing swim briefs. They have the bodies of Classical or Renaissance nudes: idealized and strong. Cadmus was deeply influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Here, he’s even executed the work in egg tempera, a painstaking medium that most artists had given up by the later sixteenth century. 

The picture’s mood is a little odd. The sea wall is labyrinthine, and blocks most of the ocean view. Hardly anyone is looking at each other, and it’s not entirely clear what’s going on. Most of the figures seem intent on their private thoughts or business. There’s a strange huddle of people to the right, including a woman in traditional Breton costume. She adds to the painting’s slightly surreal quality—but perhaps also hints at the presence of conservative society.

The two central men aren’t making eye contact either, but they do seem to be communicating. In this way, the painting is slyly humorous about how homoerotic desire can hide in plain sight—even at a time when that desire was essentially forbidden.

It Starts With Trouble : William Goyen and the Life of Writing by Clark Davis

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2015

I first became aware of Goyen's writing with The House of Breath (1950). The writing, although prose, has such a poetic quality about it that it isn't easily forgotten. His style is not easily defined and he, himself did not believe that he fit into any of the genres that were often ascribed to him (Southern Gothic, modernist, magical realist, etc.).

Although not always appreciated by family members, Goyen seems to have used the events of his life, particularly life in east Texas, as subject matter for his writing. This allows Davis to tell the story of Goyen's life through his published novels and stories as well as manuscript materials from collections at two universities.

Goyen's primary relationships were with men until he was in his mid-40s and these relationships find their way into a number of his works. He met and later married the actress Doris Roberts in 1963.

Not having read Goyen's other work, this biography is a great introduction to his entire oeuvre. I hope to explore some of his other novels in the future. I'm particularly interested in Half a Look of Cain (1994), the novel that was written after The House of Breath but could never find a publisher in Goyen's lifetime.

Washington DC - November 2015

Channeling O'Keefe (Between Here & There)

Teaism

The Blind Bow Boy by Carl Van Vechten

New York : Knopf, 1923

The Blind Bow Boy is a bit of a camp novel. Young Harold Prewett is summoned to see his estranged father. Having been raised by his Aunt Sadi since the time of his mother's death, his father was a virtual stranger. George Prewett's has hired someone to teach Harold about the world. Paul (sometimes Paulet) Moody is tasked with introducing Harold to the world. Soon Harold starts attending parties and jazz clubs in Harlem and becomes acquainted with a number of interesting characters such as the eccentric Duke of Middlebottom and Zimbule, a circus performer.

Campaspe's garden, which appears as the dustjacket and frontispiece image by Robert E. Locher, is in many ways the center of the story and is obviously the source of the novel's title.

     Campaspe's garden, at the rear of the house, was enclosed in high brick walls on which were trained espaliered fruit-trees. Dwarf shrubs forced their miniature trunks between the mossy crevices of the flagstones of various sizes and colours that paved the ground. Over these a quaint tortoise of considerable size and incredible age, named Algaë, wandered in a disconsolate manner. There were a few comfortable chairs and, in one corner, under the shade of a spreading crab-apple tree, a table. In the opposite corner rose a rococo fountain which Campaspe, entranced at first sight, had purchased in an antiquary's shop in Dresden. This fountain gave the atmosphere to the whole place. On a low pedestal, in the midst of a semi-circular pool, a marble Eros, blindfold, knelt. His bow drawn taut, the god was about to discharge an arrow at random. Beneath him, prone on the marble sward, a young nymph wept. The figures were surrounded by a curving row of stiff straight marble narcissi, the water dripping from their cups into the pool below, in which silver-fish played.

(1st Edition (1923), p.158-9)

A curiosity in the text is a lengthy negative commentary (p.159-165) by Campaspe regarding the writing of Waldo Frank, with specific reference to The Dark Mother, published 3 years prior to The Blind Bow Boy and discussed previously on this blog.  

Bibliographies & Ratings: Garde (OTP, d); Mattachine Review (I); Young (3900)

Gay Berlin by Robert Beachy

New York : Knopf, 2014

I don't often read non-fiction, however when I saw this title I was immediately hooked. Not exactly linear, it reads more like a collection of essays on various aspects of gay life in Berlin from the mid-1800s and stopping just short of Hitler taking power, with particular focus on the Wiemar years.

We think of the gay rights movement as it relates to the Stonewall riots but multiple organizations in Berlin were fighting for gay rights (particularly the repeal of Paragraph 175) years before. Then as now, the philosophies of these organizations were not monolithic. As well, they included members who ranged from the most liberal to the most conservative (including members of the far right Nazi Party).

It is a complicated history with strong connections to both the youth group movement and male prostitution. Along the way Beachy makes the connections to many literary works, some of which are well known ... some not so much. Isherwood and Auden spent time in Berlin as has been widely read about in Isherwood's Berlin Stories and more truthfully in Christopher and His Kind. I'll definitely want to track down the diaries, autobiographies and thinly veiled autobiographical novels from others of the time. A short list of literary works available in German at the time (André Gide's Immoralist (1902), Herman Bang's Mikaël (1904), Mikhail Kuzmin's Wings (1906)) will also make for some interesting reading. Maybe less well known are the gay silent films of the era and I'm really looking forward to exploring those.

This is a fascinating read. Let us hope that we need not wait too long for the next installment from Mr. Beachy covering gay life under Hitler.

Imminent Spring Dance by Loretta Yang

Imminent Spring Dance (2012)

Loretta Yang (China)

Cast Glass

30 3/4 x 22 x 19 in.