Painted on the ceiling above the vestibule of UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library is a striking mural of 14 nude male bodies.
Painted by Allyn Cox, the work shows the figures in a range of neoclassical poses, but their faces all resemble one man: Harrison Post, the longtime romantic partner of the museum’s founder and namesake. A new exhibition at the library will place that mural, along with approximately 40 other pieces from the Clark collection, in context to explore representations of queer love, kinship and collaboration across the past four centuries.
Curated by Mal Meisels, a UCLA doctoral candidate in art history, “Queer Kin: Histories of Subversive Love” opened June 13. The exhibition will be on view — by appointment only — until Sept. 12. Through artworks and written material, the exhibition urges viewers to reconsider traditional definitions of family and romance.
Cox’s preliminary sketches for the ceiling mural will be on display, too, at eye level. “We’re attending not just to the rare book collection but to the queer history of the building itself,” Meisels said. “Visitors will be encouraged to look up and engage with what’s literally above them.”
Another remarkable element is a pair of inscribed copies of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” including one with a handwritten note from the author himself to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The other contains a message from Clark to Post: “To Harrison, Dorian Gray was an enigma, and I sometimes wonder if I am likewise to others. Affectionately, W.A. Clark Jr.”
