The Short Story of Queer Art: A Pocket Guide to Key Breakthroughs, Movements, Works & Themes

The Short Story of Queer Art offers a fuller picture of the history of art - from the barriers broken and breakthroughs that queer artists have made, to the important contributions to key artistic movements, and the forgotten and obscured artists who are now being rediscovered and reassessed.

Simply constructed, the book explores over 40 key works and artists, from across the world and throughout art history, and links them to the most important movements, themes and breakthroughs. An eclectic range of art is featured, including Aubrey Beardsley’s The Peacock Skirt, Frida Kahlo’s Self-portrait with Cropped Hair, Cecil Beaton’s Stephen Tennant in Costume as Prince Charming and Tamara de Lempicka’s Autoportrait.

Accessible, concise and richly illustrated, the book reveals the connections between different periods, artists and styles, giving readers a thorough understanding and broad enjoyment of the full achievements that queer artists have made with genres that include Classical art, Art Nouveau, Pop art, Street art and Video installations.

Dawn Hoskin is a Cultural Heritage Curator with the National Trust, working across the Midlands and East of England. She is also the Curatorial Lead for the NT’s LGBTQ+ Steering Group and a freelance curator and researcher. She previously held various curatorial roles at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and has a background in fine art.

Dawn curated We Are Queer Britain! (2022-2024) the award-winning first exhibition for Queer Britain, the UK’s first national LGBTQ+ museum. She is a Steering Group member of the Queer Heritage & Collections Network and member of the Queer British Art research group. Dawn’s interests span a wide variety of subjects, from the 16th century to the present day, including art, craft and curation as social justice activism and LGBTQ+ histories.