The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939

From 2022-2025, I had the privilege of curating the Japanese section of the global art exhibition “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939.” The exhibit ran at the gallery Wrightwood659 from May to July 2025. For more information, check out Wrightwood659’s website: https://wrightwood659.org/exhibitions/the-first-homosexuals-the-birth-of-a-new-identity-1869-1939/

Wrightwood 659, Chicago, Il, May 2-July 26 2025

• Lead Curator, Japanese Section

Description: The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939 explores a sea change in how society regarded homosexuality in the wake of the coining of the term “homosexual” in 1869. Before this watershed moment, same-sex desire marked something you did, not necessarily something you were. The First Homosexuals examines how, for the first time, homosexuals were cleaved from the rest of the population and given an identity which turned on their sexuality. Since the invention of the “homosexual,” sexuality has become totalizing, determining who you are at your core. A little over two years ago while still in the midst of the global pandemic, Wrightwood 659 offered a taste of this upcoming exhibition’s approach and scope in a small preview entitled The First Homosexuals: Global Depictions of a New Identity, 1869-1930.

The exhibition is unprecedented with more than 300 works by more than 125 artists from 40 countries, on loan from over 100 museums and private collections across the world, including the Musée d’ Orsay, The Tate, The Courtauld, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kunsthaus Zürich, National Museum of Denmark, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Museo Gregorio Prieto, and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, among others. A number of works are national treasures which have never before been allowed to travel outside their countries.

Press for The First Homosexuals:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rejected-by-museums-around-the-world-this-new-art-exhibition-explores-the-historical-roots-of-term-homosexual-180986632/

https://www.fastcompany.com/91332097/this-exhibition-explores-the-history-of-the-term-homosexual-museums-are-afraid-to-show-it

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-art-world/how-the-first-homosexuals-shaped-an-identity

https://www.nbcchicago.com/video/top-videos-home/the-first-homosexuals-museum-exhibit-explores-history-of-sexuality/3775374/

https://chicago.suntimes.com/art/2025/05/02/the-first-homosexuals-exhibit-wrightwood-695-chicago-museum

https://www.out.com/art/the-first-homosexuals-exhibition-review-interview