ARTH 373 Issues in Contemporary Canadian Art: Queer Art History

• Instructor: Adrian Deveau

In 1982, the Canadian gay magazine The Body Politic was charged by the federal government for publishing “obscene material” in their article “Lust with a Very Proper Stranger.” Seated in the courtroom with pen and paper in hand were the members of the Toronto-based gay arts collective JAC. John Grube, founding member of JAC, produced a courtroom drawing while the 1982 trial was held, documenting the proceedings in real time. From the Two-Spirit Series (1993) in Vancouver, British Columbia on unceded Musqueam territory, to a burgeoning underground queer arts scene in Toronto, Two-Spirit, Black, POC, and settler queer artists of the 1950s to the 2000s begin to set the framework for a renewed image of a queer “self” against the backdrop of homonationalism, censorship, and the police state in settler North America. This course will provide students with a scope of Black, settler, Asian, and Indigiqueer/queer artists and art exhibitions across settler Canada and the United States. Students will also be introduced to the foundations of queer theory as well as current discourses around queer arts and culture. Focusing on both local and national arts movements, students will be familiar with artist-run centres and queer artists rooted in multiple Canadian cities.