John Button was born in San Francisco in 1929. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and later taught in Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland and New York. Button and his partner Alvin Novak were involved in the early years of the Mattachine Society and contributed to the formation of ONE Incorporated. However, Button is best known as a Neo-Romantic Realist, "urban intimist," prize-winning painter. He is associated with the New York School of painters and poets, known for his treatment of light in paintings, with urban architectural elements contrasting with large areas of clouded skies. In addition to his works belonging to many museum collections, he also created a large political mural, since destroyed by fire, with Mario Dubsky for the Gay Activist Alliance Firehouse in Manhattan.

Lesser known for his drawings of male nudes, Button proposed a "frankly homosexual" show in 1972 as well as an exhibition titled The Male Nude at Hofstra University in 1973. Posthumous exhibitions include The Body as Landscape exhibition at ONE Archives circa 2002 and John Button/ Paintings and Drawings from the Estate at ClampArt in New York City, 2007-2008.

John Button died in New York City in 1982.

Sources:

John Button Drawings, Coll2013-015, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California

Button, John. John Button: An American Painter. Kean College; Union, NJ, 1984.

www.artnet.comhttp://www.artnet.com/artists/john-button (accessed May 2013)

http://clampart.com/2012/02/john-button-1929-1982 (accessed May 2013)

http://www.johnbuttonartist.com/ (accessed May 2013)