I have painted and drawn many images of James Dean throughout my life and career, and this painting came from the Heroes series, the foundation of the body of work that grew to be My American Dream—this is a seminal work. Dean was infamously gay or at least “Hollywood Bisexual,” and although his character was steaming for Elizabeth Taylor in this, perhaps the best of the three movies made in Dean’s lifetime, he also has a homosocial rivalry with (infamously gay) Rock Hudson, in addition to being a rogue who defies the symbolic order of patriarchy and class. I also love the movie Querelle, by Rainer Werner Fassbinder based on Genet’s book, where the Hollywood musical becomes transformed into a homoerotic set with sailors in the Gene Kelly roles.

This image reminds me of that, with Dean looking on as a cowboy sings his country blues in the background, with Dean in a sultry, and still masculine (or nonbinary?) idea of masculinity, portraying the cowboy that embodies Dean’s true pioneering spirit. He wanted to be on the Mount Olympus of culture with Picasso and Michelangelo and the rest, and in his three movies he achieved this, being one of the first to give a rebel voice to a youth culture, helping to create rock ‘n’ roll with his inspiration to Elvis and John Lennon and more, and giving all a sense of agency while instrumentally questioning and bringing a critical eye to power.