Queer Moderns: Max Ewing's Jazz Age New York

A richly illustrated history of the glittering world of queer artistic life in the 1920s and '30s In Queer Moderns, Alice Friedman tells the fascinating story of the queer avant-garde of the 1920s and '30s in New York, Paris, and Venice, as seen through the eyes of Max Ewing (19031934), a young musician, photographer, and man-about-town who, although virtually unknown today, moved in extraordinary circles. In his photographs and letters, we meet the rising stars of modern art, music, dance, and literature and enter a world of interracial friendship, "queer space," and experimentation that shone brightly before being swept away by the Depression. It is a remarkable story that reveals that the history of modernism is more queer and more Black than previously recognized. In the 1920s, Ewing became part of an international coterie of artists led by Carl Van Vechten and Muriel Draper. In Europe, he was entertained by Gertrude Stein, met Stravinsky, and took a road trip with Romaine Brooks and Natalie Barney. In 1928, in a closet in his apartment, Ewing created the Gallery of Extraordinary Portraits, an installation of photos of his favorite celebrities-Black and white, clothed and nude. For his Carnival of Venice, he took portraits of more than a hundred friends-including Paul Robeson, Berenice Abbott, Isamu Noguchi, Agnes de Mille, and E. E. Cummings-posed in front of a backdrop of Saint Mark's Square. Like a character from a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ewing joined the party and then died tragically, unable to accept the end of his era or the lost dream of a new way of living. His story sheds new light on modernism and an artistic milieu that was ahead of its time.

About the Author :
Alice T. Friedman is the Grace Slack McNeil Professor Emerita of American Art at Wellesley College and founding codirector of its Architecture Program. Her books include American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture and Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Cultural History.

Review :
"A vibrant portrait of queer bohemia. . . . Friedman’s appreciative biography vividly conveys the spirited ambience of the interracial, international community of queer outsiders and intellectuals among whom, for his short life, Ewing thrived." "Ewing’s ambition, the glamorous photographic record, and his name-dropping letters make for a winning combination. . . . Queer Moderns is lively and well written, a sympathetic portrait of a needy dilettante who strove brightly until his tragic emotional crash."---Trevor Fairbrother, The Arts Fuse "[Queer Moderns] pays tribute to past queer lives in photographs. . . . This handsome volume showcases dozens of … portraits, among a trove of other images."---John McMurtrie, Kirkus Reviews "Friedman skillfully illuminates a world usually hidden behind a curtain of societal restrictions. This remarkable book will be a welcome addition to LGBTQIA+ and art history collections." "[a] sumptuous and sensitive narrative of Ewing and his cohort. Ms. Friedman expertly demonstrates that modernism, as Ewing encountered it, was everywhere — not just in high art."---Carl Rollyson, New York Sun