Classic Kink

The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, Office of LGBTQ Student Life, and the Leather Archives & Museum are partnering for Classic Kink, a two-part program that explores classicism in relation to the history of LGBTQ communities. Free, but space is limited. We ask that guests register in advance: Part I features a tour of the Smart Museum's special exhibition Classicisms, including a set of nineteenth-century photographs of suggestively posed young men amid Roman ruins. Led by Benjamin Morgan, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, the conversation will focus on the public and private dissemination of LGBTQ culture through the clandestine trading of images in the Victorian era, as well as the validation that can come from the deployment classical aesthetics. This discussion will be followed by a figure drawing session where participants will create works in response to the exhibition and discussion. Classic Kink (Part II) takes place at the Leather Archives & Museum (6418 N. Greenview Avenue) on Thursday, May 11, 6–8 pm. It features a discussion of the history and future of Chicago’s active LGBTQ community and a tour of classically-themed 1960s and 70s physique photography and murals by Chuck Renslow and Etienne. Following the tour, the UChicago student organization RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) will give a demonstration about the aesthetics of kink.

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