Untitled Collage

ARNOLD AT THE INTERSECTIONS

As a black gay man, Ralph Arnold forged his life and work in the context not only of white supremacy and heteronormativity, but also at their intersection in Chicago. As Timothy Stewart-Winter writes in the catalogue that accompanies this exhibition: “Arnold’s identity as a black gay man is not the key to unlocking the puzzle of his career, nor does his life—or his work—share some common set of attributes with all other black gay artists. But it does challenge us to think about how sexuality and race were mutually constitutive dimensions of modern American life. It reminds us that late 20th-century art history looks different when we place LGBTQ artists of color at the center. And in the case of Arnold, it emphatically requires us to think about the history of the city where he lived and worked—a city where segregation, invisibility, and the politics of respectability worked together to marginalize black queer people, while also forging a vibrant, fertile tradition
of cultural resistance.”

Courtesy of John Corbett