Roland Barthes gleefully eluded any attempt to reduce or classify his thought. He was instrumental in spreading word of Structuralism and Semiotics both within and beyond the academy. His "Mythologies" -- a series of pithy readings covering everything from wrestling to soap ads -- remains a canonical

Eclectic, Homoerotic, Layered, Semiotics, Structuralism

Recognized as a major figure almost from the moment of his arrival in New York in 1905, George Bellows proceeded to win every imaginable artistic award and honor before he was 30, and continued to produce acknowledged masterpieces up to the time of his death. Bellows enrolled at the New York School o

Ash can school, Classical, Composed, Homoerotic, Improvised, Phallic

Taking his name from the knife that American mountain men used to carve out a nation, David Bowie has always seen himself as occupying the cutting-edge of musical expression. Before he became Bowie, before he was the Thin White Duke, even before Ziggy Stardust, David was a humble saxophonist playing

Cartoonish, Epic, Glam rock, Homoerotic, Polychromatic, Sexy

At the heart of Mapplethorpe's photography there is a paradoxical tension between outrageous content and intensely controlled presentation. Mapplethorpe's images are often sufficiently obscene to be considered pornography (even by the artist himself), while his overall aesthetic is chaste, classical,

Classical, Homoerotic, In-your-face, Political, Portrait, Queer art, Repetition, Sexy, Slick