Book Announcement: Harry Bush, His Art and His Life
Harry Bush: His Art and His Life
A New Book from Hunter O'Hanian, Mischa Gawronski, and the Bob Mizer Museum!
A new book on the gay illustrator Harry Bush is well on the way for a 2027 release!
Working through over 2,000 pages of archival material and featuring over 100 works by the artist, the book will be the most detailed scholarship on Harry Bush’s life and work to date.
This project is organized by an all-star team including Hunter O’Hanian, founding Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art; Mischa Gawronski, the former Creative Director of Bruno Gmünder Verlag; and the Bob Mizer Museum and Photographic Archives, which houses the most significant collection of Harry Bush’s work.
Learn more about how you can support this project and receive your own copy of the book today!
Malibu or Bust, one of the limited fine art prints available only for kickstarter backers!
Harry Bush: His Art and His Life paints a complex portrait of an American artist whose psyche was shaped by a simultaneous thirst for visibility and isolation, while also exploring gay history in those heady, sex-positive, anything goes years after the Stonewall uprising.
Beginning his artistic career at age 40, after 20 years in the military, Harry moved to California, determined to “be part of the gay community ” and to be an artist. Shortly thereafter, he was discovered by Bob Mizer, and his illustrations began to grace the pages of Physique Pictorial, Mr. Sun, In Touch, Drummer, Stroke, and other gay magazines. Along the way, he met and befriended many of the great, gay illustrators of his day, including Tom of Finland, Etienne, Bill Ward, and Rex.
Harry Bush occupies a unique position in 20th century queer visual culture: widely seen but rarely understood. His story tells us what it was like for a gay artist to exist at a time when the only place an artist could be seen was in the gay magazines, which didn’t always treat the artist fairly.
A Taste of Honey, one of the limited fine art prints available only for kickstarter backers!
There’s still time to support this long-overdue mongoraph on an iconic gay American artist. Visit the kickstarter page today to reserve your copy of the book and receive other bonus gifts!