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Art Contemporary (1945-)

Lust Unearthed

Vintage Gay Graphics From the DuBek Collection

by (author) Thomas Waugh

Publisher
Arsenal Pulp Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2004
Category
Contemporary (1945-), Gay Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781551521657
    Publish Date
    Nov 2004
    List Price
    $29.95

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Description

On the heels of his bestselling and award-winning book Out/Lines: Underground Gay Graphics From Before Stonewall, Thomas Waugh offers more historical and erotically charged drawings, depicting aspects of gay male sexuality that were once hidden from public view.

The over 200, never-before-published images in Lust Unearthed are from the private collection of Ambrose DuBek, a Hollywood costume and set designer (his work included George Cukor's 1939 film The Women) who died in 2002 at the age of 87, and whose estate included a wealth of erotic materials, including books, periodicals, prints, and films. DuBek was a passionate advocate and patron of the arts who felt that life and the body were to be celebrated; he had no patience for other people's attempts to make him feel guilty for his attractions and desires, nor any qualms about the different worlds in which he operated. The images from DuBek's collection published here are remarkably frank, explicit, and sometimes outrageous depictions of gay men "in action" created by numerous artists both famous and unknown, and produced during a time when even nude images of men were illegal, and thus rare. Lust Unearthed brings these images out of the boxes in which they are carefully kept and into a new queer world, where expressions of gay male sexuality can be validated and indeed, celebrated.

Waugh's text is a remarkable history lesson that illuminates a once-furtive underground culture. Gay porn for the thinking man, Lust Unearthed will beguile and arouse.

Features an introduction by Willie Walker, the founding archivist at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender History Society in San Francisco, where DuBek's erotic materials were donated.

Finalist, Lambda Literary Award, Best Visual Arts Book

Now in its second printing!

About the author

Thomas Waugh is the award-winning author or co-author of numerous books, including five for Arsenal Pulp Press: Out/Lines, Lust Unearthed, Montreal Main: A Queer Film Classic (with Jason Garrison), Comin' At Ya! (with David L. Chapman) and Gay Art: A Historic Collection (with Felix Lance Falkon). His other books include Hard to Imagine, The Fruit Machine, and The Romance of Transgression. He teaches film studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, where he lives. He has published widely on political discourses and sexual representation in film and video, on lesbian and gay film and video, and has more recently undertaken interdisciplinary research and teaching on AIDS. He is also the founder and former coordinator of the Minor Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality at Concordia.

In addition to the titles below, Thomas is also co-editor (with Matthew Hays) of the Queer Film Classics series.

Thomas Waugh's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, Lambda Literary Award

Editorial Reviews

A mesmerizing collection.
-Xtra!

Xtra!

These pictures ... manage to reveal so much about the graphic depiction of gay male sex during a time when it was illegal, and thus dangerous to keep, let alone collect.
-GLBT Round Table Newsletter (American Library Association)

GLBT Round Table Newsletter

Must read best-seller.
-Hour Magazine

Hour Magazine

Historically significant.
-Out

Out

Lust Unearthedis a must for your library and a great gift.
-Mandate

Mandate

If you want your sexuality to be radical and not a market niche, buy Lust.
-Fab magazine

Fab magazine

This is our history, and I know I'm a better man for having access to such a wonderful book.
-Monday Magazine

Monday Magazine

[Thomas Waugh's] Out/Lines and Lust Unearthed are ravishing, titillating, and theoretically engaged; a pair of joyfully written reflections on the hardcore, the softcore, and everything in between. And while the world of leather daddies, swishy bellhops, and precocious sailors-on-leave might seem a far cry from the lofty theoretical debates that coloured my meeting with Waugh, a careful reading of this wonderfully depraved stash lends it an unexpected and, I think, timely, political gravity.
-Art Threat

Art Threat