For Immediate Release
January 9, 2008

Contact: Martin Meeker, 510-643-9733

“LAUTREC IN LEATHER:
CHUCK ARNETT AND THE SAN FRANCISCO SCENE”
Retrospective Art Exhibit Unveiled at the GLBT Historical Society

SAN FRANCISCO — On Thursday, January 24, from 6:00-8:00 pm, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society will hold the opening reception for its latest exhibit, “Lautrec in Leather: Chuck Arnett and the San Francisco Scene.” Detailing the multimedia works of local gay innovator Chuck Arnett, a central figure to San Francisco ’s early leather scene, the exhibit is the first-ever retrospective for this undervalued but vital artist. Arnett’s creations, long overdue for critical evaluation, illuminate one of the most important queer subcultures of the 20th century. The event is free and open to all.

Arnett produced works in everything from dance to acrylic on canvas. He is best remembered for painting the 1963 mural at the Tool Box, one of the first U.S. leather/SM bars. It was featured in an infamous 1964 Life article credited with introducing San Francisco as America’s “gay capital.” Arnett painted murals in San Francisco and New York gay bars of 1960s and 1970s. Shying away from the art world, he gained notoriety within his circle but was otherwise virtually unknown. His art ranges from the careful to the slipshod, the subtle to the bombastic—not unlike that of Toulouse-Lautrec, to whom he was compared. Of Arnett, poet Thom Gunn said, “Above all he believed in the purity of impulse [and he] helped to imagine and create the druggy sexual society of the present time.”

“Lautrec in Leather” curator Dr. Martin Meeker, a GLBT Historical Society board member and a program director with the Regional Oral History Office at UC Berkeley, brings years of experience researching Arnett and his world to the exhibit. His award-winning book, Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s (University of Chicago: 2006), utilizes oral histories, media, and artwork to detail the cultural networks attracting national interest to San Francisco’s queer scene.

WHAT:  Grand opening of the GLBT Historical Society exhibit “Lautrec in Leather: Chuck Arnett and the San Francisco Scene.” Free; open to all.

WHEN:  Thursday, January 24th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm.

WHERE: GLBT Historical Society, 657 Mission Street, Suite 300 (between New Montgomery and Third), San Francisco . One block from the Montgomery BART/Muni station. Inexpensive city parking on Third (between Folsom and Howard).

Photos and further details on Arnett and the exhibit available upon request.

The mission of the GLBT Historical Society is to increase public understanding, appreciation, and affirmation of the history and culture of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other sexual minority individuals and communities. For more information, call 415.777.5455 or visit www.glbthistory.org.