Beyond the Rainbow

Pride in Portraits

Each June, we celebrate LGBTQ+ activism in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, when demonstrators rose up in protest of a police raid on New York City’s Stonewall Inn—a bar that served as a safe haven for the gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. Since then, cities, organizations, and companies have paid homage to those whose lives have been defined by and lost in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. Most often, LGBTQ+ pride is visualized in the symbol of the rainbow. While the rainbow signals shared identity, community, and allyship, lived experiences transcend symbols and slogans. This Pride Month, Saatchi Art seeks to highlight artists whose portrayal of LGBTQ+ life goes beyond the rainbow in an acknowledgment that despite increased representation, many aspects of queer experience are still rendered invisible or one-dimensional. In Beyond the Rainbow: Pride in Portraits, we showcase pioneering artists rendering the invisible visible through portraiture.