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The exhibition “Amor et mors” by painter Paul P. is on view until June 11, 2023 at the NGC.PHOTO: Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada

Testifying to the decriminalization of homosexuality through art, such is the approach of the painter Paul P. through love you die. Paintings, prints, drawings and a sculpture created between 2003 and 2019: 30 works by the Toronto artist are on display at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) until June 11.

The works of 40-year-old Paul P. highlight images related to queer history. In particular, we discover illustrations of the faces of young men who have posed for erotic photographs. The painter’s portraits are taken from gay magazines published between the start of the gay liberation movement and the AIDS epidemic.

Paintings on exhibition walls in a museum.

The works of Paul P. dialogue with paintings from other periods, such as the painting “Les Danaïdes” by Charles Ricketts, dating from the beginning of the 20th century.

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada

This exhibition gives rise to a kind of dialogue between the contemporary approach of Paul P.’s creations and 15 other works by James McNeill Whistler, Annibale Carracci and Paul César Helleu from the Museum’s collections. Dating for one of them from the 16e century, all had a great influence on the art of Paul P., explains the exhibition’s curator, Sonia Del Re, also the NGC’s senior curator of drawings and prints.