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first looks
April 11, 2013

Photos: Paul Thek and His Merry Band of Fifties Gay Artists

By Julie Ma

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Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey

Starting tomorrow, the artist who became famous in the sixties for a series known as “meat pieces” (the gag-inducing yet hypnotizing slabs of oozing fleshlike works housed in plexiglass cases) will be honored at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in an exhibition called “Paul Thek and His Circle in the 1950s.” Rather than presenting art from Thek’s more famous years, the museum chose to delve back into the years just prior to his national fame, starting in 1954. The exhibition focuses on the young, openly gay artist in his early twenties, which includes photographs of him hanging out with his close crop of friends and fellow soon-to-be iconic gay artists, some of whom turned into his lovers, and all of whom inspired his future works. Fittingly, the show is curated by one of Thek’s lifelong friends and former lovers, set designer Peter Harvey, and gay art historian Jonathan David Katz. Click through the slideshow to see sketches by the artist of his lover asleep in the nude, or photographs of Thek himself, doing everything from looking nonchalant in sunglasses and itty-bitty swim trunks, to sitting on a lawn with a wreath of flowers perched atop his head, or our personal favorite: Paul Thek riding a zebra in the nude. The exhibit will run until July 7.

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1 / 14 Photos
Paul Thek, Nantucket, R.I., 1955 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Paul Thek and Peter Harvey, NYC, 1956 Photo: Watermill Center Collection
Paul Fisher & Paul Thek, Rhode Island, 1957 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Miami Photo (Richard Leavitt, Peter Harvey, Tennesee Williams, and Paul Thek), 1957 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Paul Thek, Nude, Astride Zebra, 1965 Photo: Copyright 1987 The Peter Hujar Archive, LLC; Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery... Paul Thek, Nude, Astride Zebra, 1965 Photo: Copyright 1987 The Peter Hujar Archive, LLC; Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Sleeping Peter, 1956 Photo: Estate of George Paul Thek, Collection of Peter Harvey
Still Life, 1953 Photo: Estate of George Paul Thek, Collection of Peter Harvey
Peter and Two Pauls in Rhode Island, 1957 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Shower Room, 1955 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Seated Male Nude, 1960 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Untitled #75, 1964 Photo: Watermill Center Collection
Portrait of Peter Hujar, c.1963 Photo: The estate of George Paul Thek, Courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Paul Thek, Rhode Island, 1957 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
Peter Hujar and Joe Raffael in the Deering Boat House Ruins, Coral Gables, 1956 Photo: Collection of Peter Harvey
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  • paul thek
  • slideshow
  • vintage photographs
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  • the '50s
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