First, I was a friend and admirer of Robert Richards, the co-author and driving force behind this book, which is a partial catalog of an exhibit by the same name that he curated for the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York. This museum began as a foundation to promote the best in gay erotic art before its designation as a state-recognized museum featuring gay and lesbian art. Sadly, much of its focus has shifted to mediocre contemporary art with a gay pedigree, often relegating the "dirty pictures" to its original, smaller space nearby.
Robert, as a board member, was an indefatigable champion of erotic art as a legitimate form for creation, publication and exhibition, and I think this exhibit was the result of his long-stated desire to create a similar show of work published by Mavety Media, one of the biggest producers of newsstand "gay porn," titles like Mandate, Honcho, Playguy and Torso. The company, after the founder's death and the death of magazines at the hands of the internet, was not particularly responsive.
Having developed contacts with a network of illustrators through his years of work, Robert created this show, also called "Stroke," rounding up examples as well as drawing on the Leslie-Lohman archives.
The book itself is a visually beautiful volume, although like almost all books now, is poorly bound and my own copy, while cared for, shows signs that the pages could easily come loose. (Having volunteered at the local library doing book repair, I learned that this is endemic to the entire industry.) Unlike some earlier tomes on this subject, the printing and paper are high quality, and Bruno Gmünder has a history of high-end coffee table volumes including images previously purchased in plain, brown wrappers.
More than that, I find it quite limited in scope. Many of the illustrators and fine artists included, like Tom of Finland, Quaintance, Mel Odom, Antonio and Harry Bush, are the subjects of one or more nicely-produced volumes of their artwork, whereas there is a long list of omissions of significant artists working over the last 50 years or so, at least up to the sad end of the magazines that were the primary source for fans of gay erotic art to see and admire those illustrations.
Where are John Kwiatkowski, Steven, Matt, Sean Platter, Roscoe, Minutello, Fred Bisonnes, Anos Nemos, Richard White, Robert Bush, Patrick Fillion, Ed Hartley, Martine, Nico and Zero? These are a few of the fairly prolific artists working in this field whose work is not included. I know Robert made a decision not to include digital art (perhaps the subject of another planned exhibit) and, likely, the passage of time and the use of pseudonyms make it difficult or even impossible to find some of these artists (the Mavety Rolodex would have been useful, no doubt), but I find the book overall to concentrate perhaps too much on the "usual suspects" to the exclusion of some of the best in the field.
It would be nice if they also produced a second volume including a wider range of talent, shining the spotlight on artists whose work was at least as memorable as the images in this book, some of it previously published.
The book includes brief biographies of the artists featured, which is interesting.
Robert himself is, happily, represented. If ever an artist merited a stand-alone volume of his work (in Robert's case, in fashion and entertainment as well as erotica), it is Robert W. Richards. I believe he was in discussions to produce such a book when he died. One can only hope Gmünder and the Leslie-Lohman can see fit to produce a fitting tribute to the man who brought glamour and sensuality to gay porn.
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