Trans artist Anton Prinner’s Large Column created in 1933. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Finding the five LGBTQ artists in the Dallas Museum of Art collection over the weekend was like a treasure hunt. Clues to their exact location included the date of the work and gallery. Obstacles included the museum’s closed stairs from the vault atrium to the second floor. But finding the works were half the fun.

As part of Pride Party+ or Pride in the Arts District, the DMA printed up a brochure highlighting five of its LGBTQ artists. (At that rate, they have enough artists left to highlight for the next 10 or 20 years).

The artists were an interesting mix.

The hunt began in the main atrium with a large Robert Rauschenberg called “Skyway,” painted in 1964. “Rauschenberg revolutionized the aesthetics of American art alongside other queer artists and romantic partners like Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly,” according to the brochure.

On Level 2 in the European galleries was Rosa Bonheur’s “A Sheep at Rest.” According to the DMA, the french painter applied for a license with police to allow her to wear trousers and loose blouses. She dressed masculine the rest of her life.

Proving transgender has been around longer than most people believe is trans artist Anton Prinner (1902-1983). In the DMA collection is Prinner’s sculpture “Large Column.” According to his biography, “his parents probably named him Anna at birth but he lived as a man throughout his life.”

In the American galleries stands Anne Whitley’s clothed sculpture “Lady Godiva.” Whitley was an abolitionist, suffragette and activist.

Her DMA profile explains, “her short hairstyle and unconventional spirit annoyed her conservative neighbors, but she remained unapologetic.” In other words, she was someone many of us would love.

In the 1860s, she met artist Abby Adeline Manning. They were partners for the next 40 years and are buried next to each other in Boston.

Finally, Marsden Hartley’s “Mountain, no. 19” hangs in the American Gallery’s 20th century art hall.

One of his most famous works, according to the DMA, is his 1914 “Portrait of a German Officer,” a painting of his lover Karl von Freyburg. Hartley, they explain, believed “his artistic and sexual interests were intertwined and that his erotic desires manifested in his artistic practices of collection, assemblage and more.”

The works remain on display at the DMA.

— David Taffet