Inspired by his background in fashion and fetish, Taylor Buck reinvents the classic homoerotic genre with his structurally modeled images of fetish-clad male beauty. His graphite and ink figures offer a subtle sensuality that is at once both intimate and powerful. Through variations of organic contours, he creates young men who embody the sexual delicacy of youth and the bold pride of the new fetish world. These are the boys of Buck's generation, the fresh fetishists who audaciously express sex and self, unapologetically.
Unlike the classic images of the 20th century, the subjects are not framed by architectural noise - they stand alone, comfortable in their own latex/leather skins. They do not snarl or threaten, nor are they engaged in priapic sexual aggression within the seedy backdrops of a basement bar, a dark alley, a military barracks. Buck's unique style relies in the static atmosphere of erotically charged potential, whether the subject is the lone-standing rubber boy, or the kinky buffet of a slave auction, his subjects are sovereign figures of their own creation. With such a brave statement of self assurance and sexual awareness, they simultaneously become the men we want to be and be with.
Buck's generation of fashion-conscious sexual expression was never fully addressed in the classic works of Tom of Finland or Etienne - Buck gives us an unabashed series of delicately sculpted, sleek images where fetish is fashion, sex is self. If this the promise of a fresh, self-reflective generation, a new direction for homoerotic art and the future of the kink community, then be grateful Taylor Buck has given us these indelible images.
Brian Smith, Adjunct Professor of Art History, School of the Art Institute, Chicago IL.