ART OF GEORGE QUAINTANCE

The flamboyant life and forbidden art of George QuaintanceGeorge Quaintance was an artist ahead of his time, a man who forged severalsuccessful careers, yet never enjoyed mainstream fame. Had he been born afew decades later, we might know him today as a multi-tasking celebritystylist, as a coach on Dancing with the Stars, or perhaps as the fineartist he aspired to be.But Quaintance, who died in 1957, lived and worked during an era whenhomosexuality was repressed, when his joyful paintings and physique photoscould not depict a penis. In an era before Stonewall, the sexualrevolution, gay rights and the AIDS crisis, Quaintance and his high-camperotic art existed in a demi-monde of borderline legality.Half a century on, the masculine fantasy world created by Quaintance,populated by Latin lovers, lusty cowboys and chiseled ranch hands, retainsits seductive allure. His highly prized paintings—numbering just55—rarely come to auction, instead selling privately for undisclosedsums. As the preeminent 'male physique' artist of the 1940s and early '50s,his work for Physique Pictorial, Demi-Gods andBody Beautiful inspired ageneration of artists like Tom of Finland, Harry Bush, Etienne, and other,lesser stars in their constellation.Raised on a farm in rural Virginia, Quaintance traveled a fascinating pathof reinvention: at various points in his life he was a Vaudeville dancer,the favored portraitist of Washington's smart set, and a celebrity hairdesigner—though he never actually touched hair.