‘Queer as a $3 bill’: celebrating 100 years of LGBTQ+ art for Pride month

‘It’s really a show that strives not only to present the accomplishments of our communities in the realm of art but also our presence and our significance in society overall’ … assemblage with Pur·suit (detail), 2019, Naima Green and Front Line of Freedom San Francisco: Queer as a Three Dollar Bill, 1981, Ken Wood. Photograph: Collection objects from Getty Research Institute

As curator Pietro Rigolo was combing through the Getty’s archives in search of material for his new show, he came upon a strange sight – a $3 bill.

“I was in this section of the archive dealing with the Black Panther movement, the WPA, the gay rights movement and protest material related to HIV/Aids,” Rigolo told me during a video interview. “In there, I found this little piece of ephemera that was this fictive $3 bill. This specific banknote bears the portraits of Harvey Milk and Bessie Smith.”