Right now at Kunstmuseum Basel, there’s an exhibition that feels both deeply historical and strikingly contemporary, and it’s open to visitors until August 23. Titled “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of New Identities 1869–1939,” it invites you into a moment when something we now take for granted, sexual identity, was just beginning to be named, shaped, and expressed. It’s not just an art show; it’s more like stepping into the early chapters of a story that still continues today.
David Paynter, The Afternoon, 1935. Courtesy of Brighton & Hove Museums.
What makes this exhibition especially engaging is how it traces the very emergence of the word “homosexual,” first used in 1869, and explores how artists began to visualize new ways of thinking about desire, gender, and identity. Through around eighty to one hundred works, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and works on paper, the show reveals how these ideas slowly took form in art before becoming part of everyday language. There’s something quite moving about seeing identity not as something fixed, but as something that had to be imagined first.
Gustave Courtois, Portrait of Maurice Deriaz, 1907. Courtesy of the Commune of Baulmes.
As you wander through the exhibition, you’ll notice that it’s thoughtfully organized into different sections, each opening a new perspective. Some rooms feel intimate, focusing on personal portraits and coded expressions of desire, while others widen the lens to show broader cultural and social shifts. The atmosphere gently guides you from quiet, almost hidden representations of queer life to more confident and visible expressions, reflecting a gradual shift from secrecy to self-awareness.
One of the most interesting aspects is how global the story becomes. While many works are European, the exhibition also highlights how ideas of same-sex desire were shaped, and sometimes distorted, through colonial perspectives, and how artists from other parts of the world responded to or resisted those views. This adds a layer of reflection: the exhibition doesn’t just celebrate visibility, it also questions how that visibility was constructed.
Karl Pärsimägi, Self-Portrait with a Palette, c. 1935. Courtesy of the Art Museum of Estonia. Photo: Stanislav Stepasko.
There’s also a strong emotional thread running through the show. Beyond the historical framework, you encounter glimpses of real lives, networks of friendships, hidden relationships, and bold acts of self-expression. The exhibition shows how art became a space where people could explore identity long before society was ready to accept it openly. It’s this human dimension that makes the experience feel warm and relatable rather than purely academic.
Andreas Andersen, Interior with Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence, 1894. Courtesy of Museo Hendrik C. Andersen, Rome.
In the end, what lingers is a sense of continuity. Even though the exhibition focuses on the period from the late 19th century to the 1930s, it quietly reminds us that many of today’s conversations around gender and sexuality have deep roots. By the time you leave, there’s a quiet sense that you’ve been part of something meaningful. “The First Homosexuals” isn’t just about the past; it’s about understanding how the past still echoes in the way we see ourselves and others. And it does all of this with warmth, curiosity, and a real respect for the people whose stories it brings to light, making the experience feel both reflective and gently forward-looking at once.
More information HERE.
