American artist, critic and museum professional Hal Fischer is best known for his photographic explorations of gay male culture in San Francisco in the late 1970s.
The acquisition of Gay Semiotics (1977) by the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow (GoMA) coincided with two more of Fischer’s photo collections from this period entering its collection: 18th near Castro St. x 24 (1978) and Boy-Friends (1979).
Fischer belonged to the loose-knit Photography and Language group which pioneered the use of words as pictures in their own right. He became interested in combining photographs with text in a way that expanded, reinterpreted or contradicted the imagery. All three of hiscollections explore the lives of gay men in San Francisco in a way that combines humourwith structuralist theory or journalism.
Fischer’s three seminal projects now join GoMA’s significant holdings of work by and about LGBTQI+ artists and their experience.
More information
Title of artwork, date
Gay Semiotics, 1977
Date supported
2020
Medium and material
24 Carbon Pigment prints
Dimensions
50.8 x 40.64
Total cost
14689
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