Romaine Brooks

Have a pending article for Clio Psyche on Romaine’s hidden secret which I have tentatively called Behind the Mask. For those of you interested in learning more I will post details later or you can go to FB Romainebrooksandhercircle. Among other images one can also find the White Bird (Private Collection) which alludes to her violated innocence.

The symbolism is unmistakable and echos other painter's themes of purity

A chilling portrayal of the ambivalent relationship Romaine had with her crazy brother

Romaine very clearly understood who the impeders were

About to see what’s left of Romaine’s Florence. I want to try and see the hills of Florence through her eyes and try and experience what she did when she walked there and looked out over the city.

Her entire life was a struggle to free herself from her horrible childhood. She succeeded brilliantly for a while but toward the end of her life she simply did not have the strength to keep the ghosts at bay. Cleo Psyche will be publishing an article of mine dealing with Romaine’s creativity and her relationship with those she idealized. But for now I am on the fly for Firenze where I hope to generate some interest in her work at the Villa Strozzi. The Duke Uberto Strozzi was her last portrait so it makes perfect sense to try and connect up with them while I am in Florence.

Like so many other authors I have struggled to make the best of an iffy publishng market. This is particularly true of dealing with what is hidden in plain sight. Often the case with lesbian lives. In Romaine’s case reconstructing her life has been a challenge because she herself did so much to obscure the reality of her very rich life. She is a totally constructed personality. She began this very early in her life to cover her vulnerability and the very human parts of herself that she believed needed protection. From her own descriptions of her tortured childhood, deranged family and herself as a deeply plagued by emotional scars woman she leads us away from other aspects of herself. Reconstructing that Romaine Brooks proved a challenge. It is one she set for any writer or reader interested in the puzzle that is the legend of Romaine Brooks. My book is a reevaluation of Romaine and her legend. I go into her early career, lovers, and aesthetics based on hr gender, class and contextualize her life and art as well as her friendships and their influences on her.  What emerges in the reconstruction based on a variety of resources is a much more nuanced and complex picture of Romaine as an individual, personality, celebrity and lover. Having it in color also colors how we experience her art. It is not simply a matter of Monochromatic

Be sure to catch the Hide/Seek show coming to Brooklyn Museum in NYC in November if you want to experience Romaine’s aesthetics face to face. Following on this show will be my book whose publication date is slated for late 2012 or early 2013. Plus an exhibition of Brooks’ paintings and drawings for fall of 2013. So a true celebrate of her life and art for a fresh audience of viewers.

As we get into the whole question of publishing Romaine Brooks’ story it becomes more challenging for reasons I never would have dreamed possible. The writer now has to take on the bulk of the burden. For some strange reason Romaine Brooks as a subject despite being featured in many websites and having made the pages of the New York Times appears to publishers as a “small” figure not worth devoting any color plates to. She will have to settle for her favorite colors black, white and gray which in reproductions do not show off her subtle portraits to their full advantage. Such are the rewards of being an out lesbian proud of her orientation and unwilling to fold her wings under the camoflage of being Mrs. Brooks.

Brooks would be shocked to find out that despite all of her hard work and the striking portraits and other works she is not being given her proper due in art history or as a woman, feminist, innovator and painter. Frankly, I’m a little puzzled by it when I see how many other “smaller” and “less” talented women and men are supported by the publishing companies. But we will keep tryiing to get her out there so the public that does follow her will have a chance to see another side of Romaine Brooks. One that presents her in a new light and gives insights into her fascinating life and art.

Romaine Brooks is a presence and a woman to be reckoned with in Washington, D.C. currently. Changes in attitudes since the nineteenth century’s medicalized view of homosexuality have provided new models for seeing differently. The Hide and Seek exhibition now showing at the National Portrait Gallery merits a look. So if you want to see a positive and androgynous presentation of

HIgly sexualized and androgynous Una

masculinity and femininity that is fresh feast your eyes on this show. Then trot over to the Archives of American Art and see the really positive contributions that GLBTQ people have made to our cultural heritage.

Romaine Brooks understood the importance of women’s liberation and equal rights. She would have been the first to cast her vote for more individual freedom for women. It is a shame that the media of today is so tightly controlled by backward thinking nut jobs whose money keeps progressive candidates and movers and shakers off the ballot. The latest supreme court decisions have made it almost impossible for government by the people, for the people and by the people to function as the constitution of these united states intended. Instead we have a country divided and run by corporate money. People don’t think for themselves and as a consequence we get government by those who mean common people and working folks no good.

So keep on trucking. Your vote still counts in holding the line if not winning this battle. This war is far from over.

A stunning portrait of her rival for Natalie Barney's affections

Certainly, all of us hope for love and fulfillment in our lives. Romaine was no different. As an artist, she received admiration and recognition from the most discriminating minds in Europe. The shame is that she is virtually unknown here. My project has been to return her to American art and shine a much needed light on her aesthetics. We have to recall that Brooks’ paintings were exhibited for the first time in America in 1971, the year after she died in obscurity in Nice, France. Like many artists long dead she nonetheless, remains a vital part of our modern consciousness because of her extraordinary sense of style and taste. She was a woman with attitude and we are the richer for the sense of self she projected as a woman and an artist.

Things are progressing with the Brooks book. Right now I am setting up possible opportunities for speaking engagements and venues to read the work. This is a very exciting time for me and Romaine. I encourage all of you who are interested in Romaine Brooks and her art to brainstorm along with me. Feel free to offer your own thoughts about places that might be receptive to this project.

It’s been a crazy week and I set up a Romaine Brooks and her Circle group on Facebook so feel free to join us for all things Brooks and GLBTQ issues.

I suppose I have been in a total rage for the last week or so over the insensitive, heartless  and scornful comments made some social networking users concerning the recent gay suicides. Bullying pushed these sensitive kids over the edge not something in their characters. A society that fosters hate everywhere they turn is guilty not these kids. It is not a matter of macho-man survival on the play ground as some Face-book a-holes have suggested. It is a matter of all of us stepping up to the plate and saying NO MORE HATE in the home, in the media, in our schools–NO WAY, NO HOW–we are finally going to stand up to the bullies and say it stops right here, right now with me. No more needless human tragedies brought about by power loving so-called ministers, priests, fanatics and other assorted wing-nuts who have high jacked the GOP and segments of the Democratic party. Who have put the fear of “THEIR” God of hate in them–so much so that these politicians lose their nerve when it comes to doing the right things by all the citizens in the realm -the whole human race – not one segment at the expense of the other.

Romaine Brooks was no liberal but Romaine was a survivor and she had attitude – that is what first drew me to her over 32 years ago when I encountered her great 1923 Self-Portrait at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC. It adorns this site because she was proud, she was strong, she was am amazing artist and she was a woman, lesbian and feminist who did not suffer fools gladly and said so! Nevertheless she suffered because she was different.

I always refer to this as her mourning picture

I am following her lead. I wish other people who cared about those in our society who feel all alone, misunderstood, with no way out could do as much. Think about the verbal pollution that comes out of your mouth and try to do better. It just might save a life. Imagine instead of laughing about sissies, fags, lesbos, feminazis, etc. you said I’m sorry is there anything I can do. What a difference it would make. If you helped just one kid the pay off might be enormous–one more Salk, one more Leonardo, one more Kay Ryan–

Romaine Brooks was a miracle of survival in the face of a society that put women down and despised homosexuality while indulging mightily in the very sin they were so sanctimonious about! Nothing has changed that much. The tragic deaths of GLBTQ teens simply underscores the ills of our society and culture.  Romaine Brooks and her lovers were women who enabled themselves despite a homophobic and killing society. We need to change this climate of hate. We need to call out the haters and finger them for what they are and how they victimize these innocents to gain power and influence and money by exploiting the hate. It’s time to stop indulging them and for society to stop sanctioning and excusing these inequities. Romaine, at least on this front, would have demanded no less.

Manhood for Fags ( For Tyler and endless others: Oct 2, 2010) 

Desire takes center stage

Steamy encounters

A boy’s own story

That is splashed

All over the internet

Reducing him to his explorations

His emerging sexuality

For a lark

Sanctioned by society

The state he lives in

All for a depraved thrill

Manhood for fags

Renouncing his life

he falls victim

As the heartbreaking

Details unfold

Society’s dirty laundry

Flapping in the wind

Like Tyler’s flailing arms

A hazardous sadness

Hitting the enveloping waters

Under the George Washington bridge

Igniting them with the last

Of his luminous possibilities