Hiding the Queer Identity in Painting: The case of the Greek painter Diamantis Diamantopoulos

Abstract

Artists are often stereotyped as eccentric individuals with unique personalities and attitudes. Therefore, while in traditionalist Greek society the LGBT community has long experienced oppression or marginalization, homosexual male artists were comparatively more allowed to deviate from social norms. This led Greek homosexual artists to hide their sexual orientation in their social life while expressing it covertly or, in a few cases, explicitly, in their art. This paper studies the expression of sexual identity in the artworks of the Greek painter, Diamantis Diamantopoulos (1914-1995). In many of his pictures – mostly anthropocentric in subjects, focusing on the male human body – he hinted at his homosexuality more or less covertly. I aim to examine these works in correlation with issues of subjectivity and otherness, in the context of the artist’s lived experiences and social status. My research is based on Erving Goffman’s theory about social roles, and Didier Eribon’s books on sexual and class identity.

Keywords

• social
• installation
• class
• transformation