Bruce Sargeant and His Circle

Figure and Form

Painter Mark Beard is a master of fiction. Working in the 1920s style of his imaginary gay great-uncle Bruce Sargeant, Beard creates images of athletes in various stages of dress and undress. This archly homoerotic, exquisitely rendered body of work is rounded out with paintings by Bruce's circle of friends and associates: his Classicist teacher, Modernist lesbian best friend, and Abstract Expressionist art-school rival. Critical essays, remembrances from New York society members, and other ephemera from this lively quartet of fictional characters create an enticing journey into history, literature, and art.