Fit for a Queen: Perkins Harnly, Victorian Style, and Queer Identity in Mid-Century America
Description:
Presented by Sarah Burns, Ruth N. Halls Professor Emerita, Art History, Indiana University. Eduardo Ardiles, founder of the Philadelphia-based architectural and interior design firm, Studio Edo, will moderate the Q & A. Born on a hardscrabble Nebraska farm, artist Perkins Harnly crossed paths with legendary celebrities and colorful characters while visiting famous graveyards, winning prizes at drag balls, and toiling in an upscale Los Angeles cafeteria. From the 1930s on, Harnly produced paintings of exuberantly overstuffed Victorian rooms embedded with sly jokes alluding to his own queer selfhood. Looking through the lenses of Harnly’s life and art, this talk considers the role of the Victorian interior as a metaphorical closet that served as a refuge from the judgment and dangers of the outside world.
