From Green Candy Press comes a most welcome collection of art by a gay artist who’s unfortunately far less recognized than he deserves to be. I’d seen and admired Harry Bush’s art for years, on the web and in various books on ’60s gay art, but I knew almost nothing about him. In this beautifully printed, large-sized 190-page book (available from Amazon), we discover a man whose life might not have been as happy as we could have wished for such a talented artist.
Bush, born in the ’20s, worked all his life in the military, and so was deeply closeted. Publication of his art began in the ’60s only after he’d retired, and it seems he wasn’t satisfied with what gay life had to offer at the time, nor with his relations with publishers and editors. Which, of course, make his happy, smiling young men and the silly, easy humor often present in his work that much more surprising. He did a lot of work for the Physique Pictorial magazine (which introduced Tom of Finland’s work to the USA, among other accomplishments), and later for other gay magazines until the ’80s, depicting scenes and people in a more and more explicit way, as did most artists of his times when censorship loosened little by little. He died in 1994, and fortunately at least part of his art went to a friend of his, who writes an introduction to this book.
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With about 230 pieces lovingly reproduced, this book covers the whole of Bush’s career, and gives us stand-alone illustrations as well as a number of series, which seem to work as short narratives, or maybe storybooks for adults: Cupids reappear throughout the book, nerds with big cocks find themselves in compromising (but entertaining) positions, a model of a super-tiny bikini barely covers the goods, and mock teen magazines articles uncover the steamy undersides of their male idols. A very large selection from the artist’s sketchbook reveal how lively his studies were, the majority of the images giving us the impression of someone who tended to see the humorous side of even the most hackneyed sexual fantasy, which is something I definitely enjoy. Bush’s art focused mainly on older teenagers/younger men, whose physique is manly and tender at the same time. The attraction of the man-boy is pretty timeless, as Greek Kouroi can attest.
I’d been hoping for a book dedicated to Harry Bush’s work for a long time, and we can only thank Green Candy Press for finally doing it, and doing it so well. Now, if only someone could publish an Oliver Frey retrospective, I’d be even happier.
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