ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys queer modernist artwork produced by Margaret Hoening French (1906–1998). French was a member of PaJaMa, a US-based avant-garde trio that included her husband Jared as well as Paul Cadmus. While scholars have produced a significant amount of research about the latter two, less has been written about Margaret’s life and her experimental aesthetics. Rectifying this oversight, this chapter concentrates on French’s relationship to modern gay subcultures primarily in the 1930s and ’40s via her painting, photographs, and archival practices. Often treated as ancillary to queer male environments, French in fact made important contributions to them while they simultaneously nourished her social, psychic, and creative life.
