Queering the Whitworth is a project that looks at the gallery’s art collection from a non-normative perspective in order to (re)discover missing LGBTQIA+ narratives associated with either the artist, the artwork or the artworks subject matter.
This project works on the understanding that throughout history the biographies of our ‘LGBTQIA+’ artists, artworks or subject matters have been omitted from the cannon of art history. By researching the collection from a queer perspective, it allows us to challenge the dominant, heteronormative position that art history and the museum finds itself within.
The art collection here at the Whitworth contains a rich selection of artists that have used their creativity to acknowledge their sexual difference, or to question gender identities. This has been achieved through the artists’ depictions of same sex attraction, through the depictions of friends, family, lovers or partners, or by capturing their experiences of same sex loss or trauma within their artwork.
However, this project is not concerned with labelling artists with contemporary notions of gender or sexuality, because we are aware that these concepts are nuanced, complex and individual. Instead, the projects aim is to look at how LGBTQIA+ communities can find connections with each other, through the emergence of a shared and common past.
Queering The Whitworth 