GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY INVITES PUBLIC TO PARTICIPATE IN ARNETT EXHIBIT

For gay men who remember San Francisco’s South of Market Scene scene in the 1960s and 70s, Chuck Arnett's large-scale painted murals that adorned iconic gay bars like the Stud, the Tool Box, and the Detour, provided the backdrop for an era. Arnett, who would have turned 80 this month, is the subject of an ongoing exhibit in the galleries of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society. The exhibit, entitled “Lautrec in Leather: Chuck Arnett and the San Francisco Scene, A Retrospective,” is the first-ever retrospective of Arnett’s artwork.

On Thursday March 13, 2008, from 6:00 – 8:00pm, the GLBT Historical Society will present a free, public program entitled "Remembering Chuck Arnett and the South of Market Scene of the 1960s and 70s." Attendees will be able to view the retrospective and will be able to record short video interviews to share their own memories of Chuck Arnett and the South of Market scene that he chronicled in his art.

Poet Thom Gunn said of Arnett, “Above all he believed in the purity of impulse [and he] helped to imagine and create the druggy sexual society of the...time.” Exhibit curator Martin Meeker adds, “Arnett’s work is a visual journey through the radical changes San Francisco’s gay community underwent from the early 60s, through the time of Harvey Milk's murder. By collecting video-taped memories from those who also lived through that scene, we’ll be able to add an extraordinary layer of personal experience to this ground-breaking exhibit.”

The exhibit highlights one of the most important queer subcultures of the 20th century, and features a range of pieces by Arnett inspired by San Francisco’s underground nightlife scene—not unlike the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, to whom he was often compared. The exhibit opened in January, and runs through April 26, 2008.

With the Gus Van Sant film on Harvey Milk set for release later this year, the GLBT Historical Society is expecting a surge of interest in GLBT history from this time period. “This is a wonderful time for us to unveil the Arnett exchibit,” says Paul Boneberg, GLBT Historical Society Executive Director. “We have a wealth of material from San Francisco’s GLBT history in our archives, and Arnett’s work offers a unique way to showcase some of our most prized pieces from the 1960s and 70s.”

Paul Boneberg
415-777-5455, ext. 6
paul@glbthistory.org

GLBT Historical Society
657 Mission Street #300
San Francisco, CA 94105

About the GLBT Historical Society – The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society (GLBTHS) collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org.

This release was published on openPR.