Is there a link between homosexuality and creativity? This intriguing subject is recognised and debated in the West. Heightened gay creativity,it is reasoned,comes from coping exceptionally to become super inventive as gays traverse tremendous societal pressures. Initially when gay feelings emerge,young people experience confusion about their sexuality. Getting isolated even from the family,they become adept at creative expressions.
Gay creativity is spontaneous,vibrant,deep,intelligent,soaked in sentiment with a soft corner for human society. Let me illustrate. I often go to Italys Accademia di Belle Arti Gallery in Florence to see a 5.17metre (17 ft) piece of marble weighing over 6 tonnes. The emotion of the man who sculpted this colossal single marble with an extraordinary expression of a Biblical man never fails to amaze me. You can still see its original uneven marble left as the pedestal. Most people would evenly cut Italian marble of this size as slabs of flooring for luxurious homes,but Michelangelo crafted incredible David,a standing male nude. When studying in Kolkatas Government College of Art before leaving India,Id become familiar with David,imagining it to be 5-6 ft high. The first time I stood in front of this Renaissance masterpiece created 1501-1504,I was shell-shocked not just from its size,but perfect anatomy. This was the master stroke of a homosexual genius. Such unparalleled artistic skill I find only in another gay artist,Leonardo da Vinci.
The story of Freddie Mercury is of another homosexual who died with AIDS. His band,Queen,sold over 300 million records; sales continue unabated even after his death in 1991 at age 45. His tremendous talent combined all musical genres,revolutionising music for millions of fans worldwide. Huge Freddie Mercury sculptures stand erect in Montreux Switzerland and London. In 1999,British Royal Mail issued a postage stamp of him. The way Charles Chaplin is considered British although he gained fame in the US and spent his last years in Switzerland,Freddie is a Gujarati who studied in India. Whats regrettable is that India never recognised Freddie Mercury. Bollywood songs,many copied from Western tunes and genres,have made celebrities of playback singers known through cinema actors. Apart from Oscar or Nobel winners,globally reputed winners created by the masses like Freddie Mercury,also deserve our acknowledgment. Hes an inspiration for young Indians who want to excel in performing arts beyond Bollywood boundaries.
When a city brims with love and sexuality,creativity may reign. Since 16th century,beautiful Paris has recorded several gays in writers Théophile de Viau,Marcel Proust,Jean Cocteau to composer Jean Baptiste Lully,poet Paul Verlaine to fashion designers Jean Paul Gaultier,Karl Lagerfeld among others. In Montparnasse,Id often frequent Lutetia Hotel for a cup of coffee. On weekend afternoons,two men,one tall,the other short,would come in with a small dog. Their elegance was a pleasure to watch. This was Yves Saint Laurent and his companion,the brilliant intellectual Pierre Berger,who together created luxury fashion brand YSL. The creativity bubble St Laurent is no more with us,but I can still visualise this couples artistic rapport.
In 1991,Id made a drastic change in Danones brand Taillefine,internationally called Vitalinea. Bringing the idea of 0 per cent fat and Cosmetique qui se mange (cosmetics you can eat) concept,I introduced violet colour in yoghurt branding. That shocked France. Id explained to Danone that LOreal products are for surface beauty,but bacteria-based Danone yoghurt acts inside the body to keep real beauty intact. Pierre Berger read my revolutionary idea in the newspaper. Before launching YSL skin care products,he called me. We spent some time on cosmetique qui se mange. He wanted to hear me talk about the latent trend among women. Most spectacularly,he surprised me with his eloquence on Bengali culture,including writer Sarat Chatterjee.
The universal intellectual brilliance of homosexual writers shaped timeless ideas in millions of readers. Among gay authors are Oscar Wilde,Christopher Marlowe,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Tennessee Williams,Truman Capote,Walt Whitman,WH Auden,Gertrude Stein,Andre Gide,Arthur Rimbaud,EM Forster,Hans Christian Andersen,Virginia Woolf. Performing gay entertainers whove dented our imagination include George Michael,Elton John,Lady Gaga,Rudolf Nureyez and composers Tchaikovsky,Leonard Bernstein among many more.
San Franciscos Castro Street with multi-coloured flags manifests hardcore gay culture. I saw gay customers making eyes at each other in the large mirrors of a 1930s-style art deco barber shop. What startled me was Body Shop,seller of ethical cosmetics completely customising to gays. The shops entry picture had a mans nude buttock with words conveying its the best cream for sexual pleasure.
Existence of homosexuality has been recorded since ancient Egypt 2300 BC,but its public acceptance took several centuries. Did you know that Greek philosophers from Zeno in 500 BC to Socrates,Aristotle,even Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great were all gays,also Roman emperor Julius Caesar? Theres a contemporary LGBT culture for lesbians,gays,bisexuals and transgender community although not everyone subscribes to this reference term. Without having differentiation among human beings wont the world become boring?
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
