Recently discovered drawings are a relief from Rishi Sunak’s cold message to artists
An inspiring story has surfaced about the re-emergence of more than 400 erotic drawings by the late Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant, who lived most of his life as a criminalised gay man.
The drawings, thought to be destroyed, have been offered to the Charleston Trust, which manages Grant’s former East Sussex retreat. And what images they are: defiantly subversive and explicit multiracial homoerotica, bursting with passion, flesh, joy, love, freedom and everything else gay people were legally barred from experiencing and expressing at the time. The underlying message of Grant’s paintings is still uplifting in 2020: art will always find a way, whatever the obstacles, hardships and dangers.
