Rex is a livg Amerin artist and illtrator closely associated wh homosexual fetish art of 1970s and 1980s New York and San Francis. He avoids photographs and do not discs his personal life. His drawgs fluenced gay culture through graphics ma for famo nightclubs cludg the M
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GAYVM OFFERS 6 RARE PRTS FROM INFLUENTIAL ARTIST 'REX'
* gay artist rex *
Rex, also lled REX, is the psdonym of a livg Amerin artist and illtrator closely associated wh homosexual fetish art of 1970s and 1980s New York and San Francis. His drawgs fluenced gay culture through graphics ma for famo nightclubs cludg the Mhaft and his fluence on artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe. In Paris and London, “his fonst memori … [were] the ‘Cottag’, the t-rooms, the public pissoirs, templ nceived and existg solely to brg relief to the male member, not distguishg between straight or gay, and unncerned wh superficial ndns like lor or relign, or how old or young, how pretty or ugly, how rich or poor the ck is” (Bo Tob Anabe, “Rex the Back Room, ” Rex Verboten!, Berl, Bno Gmünr, 2012, p.
The psdonyms of all the artists were liberate bee explic sexual art, particularly homosexual subject, was illegal, amed vague language and enforced via ntradictory judgments before the Stonewall rts. Although explic nus aimed at gay men would bee more permissible, nservative and homophobic social culture of the era still meant that volvement wh gay pornography uld have ser nsequenc.
As a eelance artist, ially he worked for a pornographic seri of Rough Tra pulp books (1972) illtrated wh 12 imag for each story, and he produced poster missns for a number of leather shops and gay bars around the US. His illtratns reflected the sexual activi and extreme end of newly empowered pre-AIDS gay muny and celebrated the gay bathhoeculture blatantly and whout apology. Commutg between New York and San Francis, REX also produced posters, talogu and lendars for The Tradg Post, nsired the first gay partment store (1978 to 1981).