CLAGS Inauguration Event Program
Item
CLAGS
ALICE WALKER and ADRIENNE RICH
welcome you to
the formal inauguration of
THE CENTER FOR LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES
AT THE GRADUATE CENTER
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Friday, October 4, 1991
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
The Graduate Center, The City Univertsity of New York
33 West 42nd Street
works by lesbian and gay artists
curated by Liz Dalton and Cindy Smith
ALL GROWN UP
All Grown Up is being shown in conjunction with the
formal inauguration of the Center for Lesbian and Gay
Studies at The Graduate Center of The City University of
New York. We intended the exhibition as celebration of the
many people who have worked over the years to see to it
that lesbian and gay studies would come of age in this
country. It is a tremendous accomplishment for lesbians and
gays to have at last secured an official place for ourselves
within a distinguished academic institution.
Organizing an exhibition around issues of sexuality
presented many of the same problems we expect are en-
countered by lesbian and gay studies generally. Should all
the participants be lesbian or gay? Should all of the work
have a specifically gay content? And, perhaps most impor-
tantly, how much sex can we all get away with? The first
two questions are at the heart of what constitutes gay and
lesbian work. The last question reminds us of our respon-
sibilities as negotiators—of the need to achieve some
understanding between ourselves and others, but never at
the expense of compromising our sexual identities.
This exhibition is further defined by the theme of grow-
ing up. The artists gathered here engage their own personal
histories, some looking for clues about their sexuality, some
revisiting awkward scenes and outcast roles. For several ar-
tists, the reality of the gay adult in the straight world is super-
imposed on the figure of the child. In David Wojnarowicz’s
Untitled piece, the future hangs like a pall around the photo
of a young boy, as the text surrounding the boy’s image warns
of the rights that will be denied him. In a series of xeroxes,
the lesbian collective Fierce Pussy assigns grown-up words
to little people, giving the effect of kids dwarfed by too-big
clothes; the viewer tries to connect, for instance, the little
girl with bangs and the “‘muffdiver”’ the group claims her
to be. And in a piece that refers to growing up perhaps only
according to our biology-friendly interpretation, Cynthia
Madansky intercuts anatomical drawings with both myths
and facts about lesbian immunity to AIDS, offering the
viewer a more developed relationship to the lesbian body.
The viewer’s relation to lesbian and gay identities is ex-
plored in the work of Clarke-Schorr, David Bussell, Bruce
Eves and Daphne Fitzpatrick. Clarke-Schorr’s piece, with
the phrase “YOU PIG” written in needlepoint above a
childlike drawing on a hand held mirror, is on one level quite
rude to the viewer (here viewers are understood to be both
gay and straight), and, on another level, disarming because
of its childish sense of humor. The viewer is reminded that
this is one childish phrase that transfers to an adult usage
that is potentially vicious and divisive in a way that another
childish epithet, for instance, “‘cooties,’ is not. Viewers are
left to wonder how much of the adult usage is intended
for them. And what is the viewer to make of Daphne
Fitzpatrick’s drawing of a penis? Is the drawing ironic,
appreciative, pornographic? And if it’s pornographic, then
whose desires are being addressed and why? Similarly, David
Bussell conjures a scene of laws with the simple words
“Stop” and ‘“‘Go,” suggesting that many of us fall outside
their simple application.
The artists in this exhibition confront their own personal
expectations as well, along with the expectations of their
families and friends. Tracy Mostovoy looks at some of her
own childhood writing in which she talked about what she
“‘wanted to be’’ in the context of a mixed media collage of
erotic images she’s more recently produced and a popular
press account of a lesbian story. Simon Leung explores the
masculinity of fathers, imaging the father as part mystery,
part monster, and, all in all, decidedly partial.
Ken Day, G.B. Jones, Don Reid and Bill Shackelford all
make narrative images of gay and lesbian desire. Their work
carves out a place for non-heterosexual representations of
sexuality, race and gender roles in the figurative tradition.
Don Reid looks at gender’s ambiguities in his exuberant
collages, presenting gender as puzzle rather than problem,
while G.B. Jones’s drawing of two young dykes, reminding
us of the good parts in Love and Rockets, claims ground
for butch intimacy. Bill Shackelford presents bathroom sex
perhaps as shared personal history among young men of
different races, and St. Sebastian, always gay, gets updated
anyway by Ken Day. Checking in with another kind of
narrative, Sarah Rapson, Shelley Marlow and Ed Rogers
put a spin on childhood, and each knocks something off
balance in the process. Also, regarding Hilton Als and Darryl
Turner, we can only say at this time that they have assured
us that their piece will be produced “in accordance with
the rules of the exhibition.”
Finally, we chose some work that opens up the lesbian and
gay community and makes connections with the community
at large. In a six-part installation, youth who testified at the
Board of Education Hearings on the Condom Availability Plan
offer both testimony and information, addressing the urgent
need for AIDS education in city schools. Felix Gonzalez-Torres
is represented here by some work that he did for the book
Out There, which connects gay and lesbian concerns with
multicultural ones. Gonzalez-Torres assembled childhood
photographs of everyone who worked on the book, addressing
the histories of the identities brought together by the project.
The exhibition will be on display from Oct. 7th 1991
through Nov. Ist 1991 in the Mina Rees Library at The
Graduate Center. We would like to thank all the artists,
lenders, Scott Catto, Catherine Tedford, Ray Ring and Adam.
CINDY SMITH
LIZ DALTON
CATALOG OF THE EXHIBITION
Hilton Als and Darryl Turner
Ganz in Weiss or The Unintelligent Ones are Dying Out. 1991
Xerox, 30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artists
David Bussell
Untitled, 1989
Photographs mounted on foamcore, 14 x 28 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Clarke-Schorr
YOU PIG, 1991
Hand held mirror with needlepoint, 6 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artists
Ken Day
Saint Sebastian, 1991, 14 x 9% x 1 inches
Untitled, 1991, 16% x 11 x 1% inches
Untitled, 1991, 14 x 10 x 1 inches
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
Bruce Eves
Self-Portrait #2, 1991
Canon laser copy with paint, 20 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Fierce Pussy
Untitled, 1991
Xerox, dimensions variable
Courtesy of Fierce Pussy
Daphne Fitzpatrick
Untitled, 1991
Charcoal and pencil on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Félix Gonzalez-Torres
Out There: Marginalization an Contemporary Cultures
Edited by Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever and Trin T. Minh-ha
and Cornel West
Forward by Marcia Tucker
Published by The New Museum of Contemporary Art and the
MIT Press
Félix Gonzalez-Torres selected and organized the visual materials
for the book
1990
Courtesy of The New Museum of Contemporary Art
Don Reid
The Encounter, 1991
Acrylic, mixed media
3 at 9 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artist
G.B. Jones
Skateboard Girls, 1990
Pencil on paper, 8% x 6% inches
Courtesy of Feature
Simon Leung
Father’s Journal (Detachments), 1989
Photocollage, 6 parts at 12 x 17% inches each
Courtesy of the artist
Cynthia Madansky
Myths, 1991
Blueprint, 24 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Shelley F. Marlos
Wooden Movie, 1989
Oil, glow in the dark paint and pen on wood, 10% x 9 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Tracey Mostovoy
I Wanted to Be Me, 1991
Mixed media, photography and newspaper, 16 x 20 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Sara Rapson
Untitled, 1991, 24 x 30 inches
Untitled, 1991, 10 x 8 inches
Untitled, 1991, 10 x 8 inches
Paint and chalk on canvas
Ed Rogers
Bushes of Beachwood, 1991
Caran D’Ache, china marker and acrylic on paper,
30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Bill Shackelford
Seafoam Lavatory, 1991
Canon laser copy, 40 x 30 inches
Courtesy of the artist
David Wojnarowicz
Untitled, 1991
Photostat, 30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of PePeO*W
Tatum Benn, Novia Condell, Erika DeJesus, Theresa Francis,
Mary L. Jean, Brownie Johnson, Shamika Jones, Joe Liotta,
Fitzcarl Reid, Orlando Robles, Steve Schiff
Seen and Heard, 1991
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
THE CENTER FOR LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES
OCTOBER 4, 1991 RECEPTION
UNDERWRITERS
The Advocate
David Kessler
Miya & Revels Cayton, Jr.
Haworth Press
Acker Merrall & Condit
David B. Feinberg
Mae Kuykendall
Regent Hospital
Roy Barnitt
Robert Casaletto
Herbert I. Cohen
James Cordon
David Deitcher
Byrne R.S. Fone
John Gates
Alan Gurganus
Claude I. Hersh
Joan Katz
Josie Leavitt
Lawrence D. Mass
Maury Newburger
Kathleen Nokes & Dorothy Hickey
Pam A. Parker
Arnold Rampersad
Gordon Rogoff
Anthony Salerno
Donald M. Scott
Gordon E. Thompson
Dava Weinstein
Gilda Zwerman
Christopher Street Financial, Inc.
Morris Kight Out/Look
BENEFACTORS
Carol & W.H. Ferry
Andrew Tobias
William Wedin
SPONSORS
Martin Duberman
Richard A. Isay
Sam Phillips
Joseph Wittreich & Stuart Curran
FRIENDS
Stuart M. Berger
Mary Beth Caschetta
Blanche W. Cook & Clare Coss
Elaine & Stephen Crane
John D. Edwards
Barbara Gaines
William P. Germano
Paul H. Hazlett, II
Glenn T. Izutsu
Michael Klauber
Barbara J. Lydon
Robin Moscato
Patricia E. Newlin
Vivien Ng
Shepherd Raimi
Peter Repetti
Ruthann Robson
James Saslow & Steven Goldstein
Craig Seymour II & Seth Silberman
Michael Spirito
Barbara M. Tillman
David Knapp Whittier
Special thanks to the following for contributing and helping with the donated book bags:
A Different Light Bookstore; Steven Chudney; Cheryl Clarke; Conditions; Farrar, Straus Girou; Norman Laurila; Lawrence
D. Mass; Ben McCormick; Publishing Triangle; Quality Paperback Book Club; Robert Riger; David Rosen.
ALICE WALKER and ADRIENNE RICH
welcome you to
the formal inauguration of
THE CENTER FOR LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES
AT THE GRADUATE CENTER
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Friday, October 4, 1991
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
The Graduate Center, The City Univertsity of New York
33 West 42nd Street
works by lesbian and gay artists
curated by Liz Dalton and Cindy Smith
ALL GROWN UP
All Grown Up is being shown in conjunction with the
formal inauguration of the Center for Lesbian and Gay
Studies at The Graduate Center of The City University of
New York. We intended the exhibition as celebration of the
many people who have worked over the years to see to it
that lesbian and gay studies would come of age in this
country. It is a tremendous accomplishment for lesbians and
gays to have at last secured an official place for ourselves
within a distinguished academic institution.
Organizing an exhibition around issues of sexuality
presented many of the same problems we expect are en-
countered by lesbian and gay studies generally. Should all
the participants be lesbian or gay? Should all of the work
have a specifically gay content? And, perhaps most impor-
tantly, how much sex can we all get away with? The first
two questions are at the heart of what constitutes gay and
lesbian work. The last question reminds us of our respon-
sibilities as negotiators—of the need to achieve some
understanding between ourselves and others, but never at
the expense of compromising our sexual identities.
This exhibition is further defined by the theme of grow-
ing up. The artists gathered here engage their own personal
histories, some looking for clues about their sexuality, some
revisiting awkward scenes and outcast roles. For several ar-
tists, the reality of the gay adult in the straight world is super-
imposed on the figure of the child. In David Wojnarowicz’s
Untitled piece, the future hangs like a pall around the photo
of a young boy, as the text surrounding the boy’s image warns
of the rights that will be denied him. In a series of xeroxes,
the lesbian collective Fierce Pussy assigns grown-up words
to little people, giving the effect of kids dwarfed by too-big
clothes; the viewer tries to connect, for instance, the little
girl with bangs and the “‘muffdiver”’ the group claims her
to be. And in a piece that refers to growing up perhaps only
according to our biology-friendly interpretation, Cynthia
Madansky intercuts anatomical drawings with both myths
and facts about lesbian immunity to AIDS, offering the
viewer a more developed relationship to the lesbian body.
The viewer’s relation to lesbian and gay identities is ex-
plored in the work of Clarke-Schorr, David Bussell, Bruce
Eves and Daphne Fitzpatrick. Clarke-Schorr’s piece, with
the phrase “YOU PIG” written in needlepoint above a
childlike drawing on a hand held mirror, is on one level quite
rude to the viewer (here viewers are understood to be both
gay and straight), and, on another level, disarming because
of its childish sense of humor. The viewer is reminded that
this is one childish phrase that transfers to an adult usage
that is potentially vicious and divisive in a way that another
childish epithet, for instance, “‘cooties,’ is not. Viewers are
left to wonder how much of the adult usage is intended
for them. And what is the viewer to make of Daphne
Fitzpatrick’s drawing of a penis? Is the drawing ironic,
appreciative, pornographic? And if it’s pornographic, then
whose desires are being addressed and why? Similarly, David
Bussell conjures a scene of laws with the simple words
“Stop” and ‘“‘Go,” suggesting that many of us fall outside
their simple application.
The artists in this exhibition confront their own personal
expectations as well, along with the expectations of their
families and friends. Tracy Mostovoy looks at some of her
own childhood writing in which she talked about what she
“‘wanted to be’’ in the context of a mixed media collage of
erotic images she’s more recently produced and a popular
press account of a lesbian story. Simon Leung explores the
masculinity of fathers, imaging the father as part mystery,
part monster, and, all in all, decidedly partial.
Ken Day, G.B. Jones, Don Reid and Bill Shackelford all
make narrative images of gay and lesbian desire. Their work
carves out a place for non-heterosexual representations of
sexuality, race and gender roles in the figurative tradition.
Don Reid looks at gender’s ambiguities in his exuberant
collages, presenting gender as puzzle rather than problem,
while G.B. Jones’s drawing of two young dykes, reminding
us of the good parts in Love and Rockets, claims ground
for butch intimacy. Bill Shackelford presents bathroom sex
perhaps as shared personal history among young men of
different races, and St. Sebastian, always gay, gets updated
anyway by Ken Day. Checking in with another kind of
narrative, Sarah Rapson, Shelley Marlow and Ed Rogers
put a spin on childhood, and each knocks something off
balance in the process. Also, regarding Hilton Als and Darryl
Turner, we can only say at this time that they have assured
us that their piece will be produced “in accordance with
the rules of the exhibition.”
Finally, we chose some work that opens up the lesbian and
gay community and makes connections with the community
at large. In a six-part installation, youth who testified at the
Board of Education Hearings on the Condom Availability Plan
offer both testimony and information, addressing the urgent
need for AIDS education in city schools. Felix Gonzalez-Torres
is represented here by some work that he did for the book
Out There, which connects gay and lesbian concerns with
multicultural ones. Gonzalez-Torres assembled childhood
photographs of everyone who worked on the book, addressing
the histories of the identities brought together by the project.
The exhibition will be on display from Oct. 7th 1991
through Nov. Ist 1991 in the Mina Rees Library at The
Graduate Center. We would like to thank all the artists,
lenders, Scott Catto, Catherine Tedford, Ray Ring and Adam.
CINDY SMITH
LIZ DALTON
CATALOG OF THE EXHIBITION
Hilton Als and Darryl Turner
Ganz in Weiss or The Unintelligent Ones are Dying Out. 1991
Xerox, 30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artists
David Bussell
Untitled, 1989
Photographs mounted on foamcore, 14 x 28 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Clarke-Schorr
YOU PIG, 1991
Hand held mirror with needlepoint, 6 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artists
Ken Day
Saint Sebastian, 1991, 14 x 9% x 1 inches
Untitled, 1991, 16% x 11 x 1% inches
Untitled, 1991, 14 x 10 x 1 inches
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
Bruce Eves
Self-Portrait #2, 1991
Canon laser copy with paint, 20 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Fierce Pussy
Untitled, 1991
Xerox, dimensions variable
Courtesy of Fierce Pussy
Daphne Fitzpatrick
Untitled, 1991
Charcoal and pencil on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Félix Gonzalez-Torres
Out There: Marginalization an Contemporary Cultures
Edited by Russell Ferguson, Martha Gever and Trin T. Minh-ha
and Cornel West
Forward by Marcia Tucker
Published by The New Museum of Contemporary Art and the
MIT Press
Félix Gonzalez-Torres selected and organized the visual materials
for the book
1990
Courtesy of The New Museum of Contemporary Art
Don Reid
The Encounter, 1991
Acrylic, mixed media
3 at 9 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artist
G.B. Jones
Skateboard Girls, 1990
Pencil on paper, 8% x 6% inches
Courtesy of Feature
Simon Leung
Father’s Journal (Detachments), 1989
Photocollage, 6 parts at 12 x 17% inches each
Courtesy of the artist
Cynthia Madansky
Myths, 1991
Blueprint, 24 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Shelley F. Marlos
Wooden Movie, 1989
Oil, glow in the dark paint and pen on wood, 10% x 9 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Tracey Mostovoy
I Wanted to Be Me, 1991
Mixed media, photography and newspaper, 16 x 20 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Sara Rapson
Untitled, 1991, 24 x 30 inches
Untitled, 1991, 10 x 8 inches
Untitled, 1991, 10 x 8 inches
Paint and chalk on canvas
Ed Rogers
Bushes of Beachwood, 1991
Caran D’Ache, china marker and acrylic on paper,
30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Bill Shackelford
Seafoam Lavatory, 1991
Canon laser copy, 40 x 30 inches
Courtesy of the artist
David Wojnarowicz
Untitled, 1991
Photostat, 30 x 40 inches
Courtesy of PePeO*W
Tatum Benn, Novia Condell, Erika DeJesus, Theresa Francis,
Mary L. Jean, Brownie Johnson, Shamika Jones, Joe Liotta,
Fitzcarl Reid, Orlando Robles, Steve Schiff
Seen and Heard, 1991
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
THE CENTER FOR LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES
OCTOBER 4, 1991 RECEPTION
UNDERWRITERS
The Advocate
David Kessler
Miya & Revels Cayton, Jr.
Haworth Press
Acker Merrall & Condit
David B. Feinberg
Mae Kuykendall
Regent Hospital
Roy Barnitt
Robert Casaletto
Herbert I. Cohen
James Cordon
David Deitcher
Byrne R.S. Fone
John Gates
Alan Gurganus
Claude I. Hersh
Joan Katz
Josie Leavitt
Lawrence D. Mass
Maury Newburger
Kathleen Nokes & Dorothy Hickey
Pam A. Parker
Arnold Rampersad
Gordon Rogoff
Anthony Salerno
Donald M. Scott
Gordon E. Thompson
Dava Weinstein
Gilda Zwerman
Christopher Street Financial, Inc.
Morris Kight Out/Look
BENEFACTORS
Carol & W.H. Ferry
Andrew Tobias
William Wedin
SPONSORS
Martin Duberman
Richard A. Isay
Sam Phillips
Joseph Wittreich & Stuart Curran
FRIENDS
Stuart M. Berger
Mary Beth Caschetta
Blanche W. Cook & Clare Coss
Elaine & Stephen Crane
John D. Edwards
Barbara Gaines
William P. Germano
Paul H. Hazlett, II
Glenn T. Izutsu
Michael Klauber
Barbara J. Lydon
Robin Moscato
Patricia E. Newlin
Vivien Ng
Shepherd Raimi
Peter Repetti
Ruthann Robson
James Saslow & Steven Goldstein
Craig Seymour II & Seth Silberman
Michael Spirito
Barbara M. Tillman
David Knapp Whittier
Special thanks to the following for contributing and helping with the donated book bags:
A Different Light Bookstore; Steven Chudney; Cheryl Clarke; Conditions; Farrar, Straus Girou; Norman Laurila; Lawrence
D. Mass; Ben McCormick; Publishing Triangle; Quality Paperback Book Club; Robert Riger; David Rosen.
Title
CLAGS Inauguration Event Program
Description
This program was given to those who attended CLAGS inaugural event at the CUNY Graduate Center, which was held on Friday, October 4, 1991. Hosted by esteemed queer and feminist scholars, Alice Walker and Adrienne Rich, the celebration doubled as an art exhibition, All Grown Up, curated by Liz Dalton and Cindy Smith, who included an exhibition text in the program. The exhibition featured various forms of artwork by lesbian and gay artists and raised questions around what a lesbian and gay art show should look like — questions strikingly similar to those that were being asked by CLAGS' founding members. Although formally instituted at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1991, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies was first conceived 5 years earlier by Martin, Duberman, one of the first historians to embrace the, then infantile, field of Queer Studies. Duberman sensed the need for a formal center devoted to queer research. As the first university-based center for LGBTQ research, CLAGS continues to demonstrate its dedication to advancing Queer Studies, by hosting public events showcasing queer research and sponsoring fellowships to support queer scholars. Among its many contributions, CLAGS annually puts on at least one major conference and holds the Kessler Award Lecture every fall to celebrate a queer scholar who has made a notable contribution to the field of queer studies.
Contributor
CLAGS
Creator
CLAGS
Date
October 1991 (Circa)
Language
English
Rights
Copyrighted
Source
CLAGS Archive
Original Format
Pamphlet / Petition
CLAGS. Letter. “CLAGS Inauguration Event Program.”, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/1285