RKD highlights David Robilliard during Queer History Month

Queer History Month

Since 2021, Queer History Month has been held annually in March in the Netherlands, on the initiative of IHLIA, a heritage organisation in Amsterdam with the largest LGBTIQ+ collection in Europe. Last year, a database was presented for the first time with forty objects from forty different archive collections and museums in the Netherlands.

Many museums have objects with queer themes or by queer artists in their collections, but these are not always easy to find. This ‘virtual queer museum’, accessible via the Queer History Month website, therefore focuses on the celebration and transmission of LGBTQ+ histories. In 2026, the collection has been expanded: more than 65 museums and archives have contributed this time, and IHLIA now presents more than a hundred objects from collections throughout the Netherlands.

David Robilliard

The RKD is participating in Queer History Month for the second time by highlighting one of the 156 bulletins from the Dutch gallery Art & Project (1968-2001). Bulletin 151 contains a sketch and a selection of poems, a kind of epigram, by British poet and artist David Robilliard, who died at the age of 36 during the AIDS crisis in London. His pointed texts are short but powerful, peppered with sexuality, puns, irony, and camp – a style that pokes fun at the distinction between high and low art and is strongly associated with LGBTQ+ culture.

Robilliard was ‘discovered’ by the artist duo Gilbert & George and, in 1993, a few years after his death, was given a major retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The Art & Project Archive at the RKD contains more information about the artists, including portrait photos, correspondence with gallery owners, photos of exhibitions, poetry collections, and items sent to promote the artist.

The article about Bulletin 151 and David Robilliard, written by Jonas van Kappel, Junior Curator at the RKD, can be read on the Queer History Month website.

Queer themes

Queer themes in visual art go beyond the individual experience of an artist. They mainly revolve around artworks that break through heteronormative gender roles or gender expectations, and in which queer desires or perspectives can be recognised.

Start your research into queer themes in the visual arts now via RKD Research, for example using Queer!?: Beeldende kunst in Europa 1969-2019 (2019) by Anton Anthonissen and Evert van Straaten, or Queer & kunst: Van doek tot digitaal en alles daartussen (2024) by Gemma Rolls-Bentley.