Male Gaze: Life, Legend, Legacy

We can trace the origins of the Leslie-Lohman Museum back to the summer of 1969. Along with the fight for civil rights that had spread from African American and Latinx communities to women and LGBTQ groups, that summer, amidst the background of other historic events including the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Stonewall Inn uprising, Charles Leslie and Fritz Lohman presented in their SoHo loft their first exhibition of gay artists and drew more than 300 guests.

The Male Gaze mines the collection amassed for over 50 years by Charles and Fritz to tell two parallel stories: the recent history of our communities and the tireless advocacy of gay artists by our founders. The show is organized into thematic areas focusing on our founders, design, fashion, the erotic, the impact of AIDS, key moments in recent LGBTQ history, and the development of the largest collection of LGBTQ art in the world.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website