![\"Kunstmuseum](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/81088593dc4ce9c715b4d33fa78f7cb2f7c120ac-91045108.jpg\")
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Kunstmuseum Basel shows the exhibition “The First Homosexuals” <\/p>\n
Keystone-SDA <\/p>\n
The Kunstmuseum Basel is opening the exhibition “The First Homosexuals” on Saturday. With around 80 works, it traces how new images of sexuality, gender and identity were formed from the first use of the word “homosexual” in 1869.\n<\/p>\n
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March 6, 2026 – 09:38\n<\/p>\n
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The exhibition is divided into six sections in three rooms, which are dedicated to different aspects of homosexuality, but also to broader forms of sexuality.<\/p>\n The fourth section, for example, shows coding in art. Female homosexuality, for example, was associated with friendship early on. The painting Contre-jour (Backlight) by Marie-Louise-Catherine Breslau from 1888 shows two women in an everyday scene. However, it was sometimes mislabelled as \u201cthe girlfriends\u201d, the museum said during a tour of the exhibition for the media on Thursday.<\/p>\n The coding of male homosexuality in the painting Naked Fishermen and Boys on a Green Shore by Ludwig von Hofmann from 1900, on the other hand, is based on an art historical motif, it explained. This goes back to the painting Bathers, which Paul C\u00e9zanne created at the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n + Too much attention paid to queer people, says Swiss survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Hope for more acceptance<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the museum\u2019s first exhibition focusing on the art and work of the LBTQIA+ community,\u201d said museum director Elena Filipovic. All over the world, people suffer prejudice because of their identity and their love. \u201cIf we succeed in bringing a little more knowledge, tolerance and acceptance into the world, great things will already have been achieved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n According to Jonathan Katz, US art historian and curator of the exhibition, definitions today are focused on the European view. This is characterised by the contrast between homo and hetero and has been globalised by colonialism together with a negative attitude. In Japan, for example, homosexuality was \u201ccompletely normal\u201d before the European influence, he said.<\/p>\n