The Erotic Art Tradition
cypher
Normally the reviews I post on art are based not on my encyclopedic
knowledge of paintings and artists through reproduction - but on the
first hand feelings and thoughts I have had when confronted with the
art object. In the case of erotic art though I have not had that
pleasure very often. Only in 1999 in Barcelona did I actually see a
huge exhibition (jardi d'eros) devote to erotic and pornographic art
works - thematically divided it the ms like Masturbation,
Prostitution, Lesbianism, Sadism, Urology, Scatology, or Bestiality.
The show had work from Caresme, Boucher, Ingres, Rodin, Klimt,
Picasso, Picabia, Grosz, Schiele, Dali, and many many more. The show
is still one of the greatest and most thought provoking exhibitions on
art I have ever seen. Some might argue that the bracketing of 'erotic
art' as a separate category is misleading - since so many artist have
indulged in it. But I suppose that it is no more spurious than
exhibitions devoted exclusively to the still life, the landscape, the
portrait or the abstract.
My interest in erotic art stretches back to my youth. As early as
twelve year old - l looked with lust at the nudes of Correggio,
Cranach, Titian, Ingres, Courbet, Renoir, Klimt and Modigliani. But
it was only when I was sixteen that I started buying books devoted to
erotic/pornographic art. I can confess that these erotic drawings
provided my teenage self with much needed masturbatory release! But I
can also admit that even at sixteen I recognized the difference
between crass porn and sophisticated art.
Porn in my experience is not an intellectual experience - just an
annalist provoker of desire. Pornographic art on the other hand, in my
experience is usually not very arousing, but very thought provoking.
So I look at pornographic art not for sexual release, but rather
intellectual stimulation.
As a young boy, apart from seeing a half dozen Page-Three type
photographs of topless women and a furtive and all too quick glimpsee
of a Penthouse magazine - my knowledge of female anatomy, or the look
of sex was none existent. I had no sisters whom I could learn about
female nature, few female friends, and no older boy's who could pass
on pornographic images to me. Staying up late at night to watch
movies with sex scenes was my only source of sexual information. But
of course this too was far from the gynecological detail I required. I
had to be content with suggestive plots, a glimps of a barest or a
flash of a pubic mound. I was like a befuddled astronomer seeking to
map the dark side of the moon - driven with a compulsive need to see
and understand and thus end my fear of women and bewildered sexual
ignorance. It was only when I was sixteen that I had the courage,
married to desperation to buy books on erotic photographs from the
early twentieth century and erotic drawings of the masters. It was
this early dependency on artistic interpretations of the sexualised
body which shaped my strange view of them. For example I noticed that
the vast majority of erotic artists drew the vagina and erect penis in
what even I recognized as a naive and simplistic manner. I also
recognized that most erotic depictions of sex lacked the heightened
realist skills which my desire demanded. Most erotic artist were in
fact not very skilled or talented. When at eighteen I finally saw my
first pornographic images in American hard core magazines (vagina's
splayed open, intercourse, blow-jobs, men eating women out, and
sometimes female sodomy) it was like snorting a long fat line of
Cocaine. Porn for me now is a habitual and rather jaded experience. It
is pure recreation - not a profound search for the truth to my
existence.
As a middle aged man - I look now with some fear to the youth -
worried that their present day soaking in porn on the Internet might
lead boys to become aggressive misogynists and girls to become
masochistic sex objects. I have absolutely no idea what effects seeing
so much depraved and perverted porn will do to their sense of
themselves or life. I do know that they will be looking at many images
beyond their youthful comprehension which may damage their growth into
mature adulthood. The thing is, porn used to be about pleasure - a
celebration of lust. But today much of the porn on the net is a freak
show, a circus act and a horror flick - appealing to young men's int
rest in slasher films, extreme reality TV humiliation and on line
executions. Perhaps I am acting too much like a grumpy old man. Maybe
all this Internet porn will have no effect of society at large - much
in the same way that previous pornographic revolutions had no effect
on hypocrisy and shame.
The division between erotic art works that are deemed acceptable and
pornographic works which are reviled and banned from public venues has
long been a subject of intense debate. An argument not helped by the
canniness of many artists through out history who have cleverly
produced semi-adventurous work which steps slightly outside the norm
but not so far as to receive universal condemnation.
For me the greatest difference between an art work of sex produced by
an artist and that produced by commercial pornographers - is the
degree of thought, skill, feeling and complexity the artist brings to
the art work. But another equally important factor is the element of
the deferred reality of the art work. Photography, film, video and the
Internet, does not represent an idea of sex - it represents the actual
event, documented like a sports event. The drawn, sculpted and painted
pornographic art work though is an interpretation of sex that usually
is a product of the artists mind or an intimate relationship with a
model. But even when the model is used - their representation lacks
the scientific reality of the photograph. As such these erotic art
works are the stuff not only of arousal but also contemplation and
thought.
The common place notion that the erotic or pornographic cannot be art
is based on historical ignorance not reality. Any study of art history
world wide quickly revels that nearly every single civilization
produced erotic art works. But such a study also reveals that no
matter how much erotic art might flourish in a particular period - it
is just as quickly attacked, banned, hidden or even destroyed by later
more religiously or politically inspired censorship, and destruction.
Such destruction was largely symbolic in terms of works of literature
and to a lesser extent - etchings and lithographs (since the sheer
number of such copies prevent a total obliteration of its history) but
catastrophic in terms of unique art works like Greece vases, Roman
fresco's, Hindu sculptures in Indian temples, the Renaissance oil
paintings of intercourse by Giulio Romano - a star pupil of Raphael or
a drawing by Schiele ripped up in front of him in court by the judge.
Moreover countless fuck-doodles and erotic watercolours and oil
sketches by countless artists have been destroyed after their deaths
by relatives fearful that these 'aberrant' works would destroy their
relatives reputations (today these works might in fact have
resurrected a few lost reputations). Frankly given this history of
self-censorship, familial censorship, political attack and religious
condemnation it is a miracle that any erotic art works survive at all.
The history of erotic art proves two things, firstly that every great
artist brings their own unique take on sexuality. That can be both a
blessing and a curse, since sometimes despite the skill or wit of an
artist - their personality and sexual preferences can alienate viewers
who do not share their feeling about sex or fetishes. Secondly that
certain sexual practices have had universal int rest to artists and
their patrons.
To a connoisseur critic like Kenneth Clark, the main criticism of
erotic art is its inferiority as art - compared with the masterful
work of the old masters. But such an argument to my mind is utterly
spurious. The level of skill, wit and subtlety of the Fresno's in
Pompeii, the sculptures of Hindu art, the pillow books of Japan, the
watercolours of George Grosz, and the drawings of Dali to my mind are
just as great as most of the higher forms found in the visual canon.
To my mind all erotic and pornographic art works are socio-political.
Artists making erotic art do so knowing full well that they will face
social debate, opprobrium and even political censorship if they then
take the step to exhibit such work. Those who attack such work - do so
on a socio-political or religious basis. Not because they are whiter
than white themselves, but rather as a flight from sexual truth and a
refusal to allow anything that contradicts their vision of social life
and manners existing in the public forum of city life.
As I have mentioned above, today on the Internet every possible kind
of sexual deviation and perversion is catered for - but the erotic or
artistic vision is almost invisible. A quick survey of Internet daily
porn galleries will quickly reveal just how dark, sinister,
misogynistic and abusive many men's sexual feeling towards women are.
However I would argue that what you are seeing is passive-aggressive
propaganda for male supremacy in a world increasingly dominated by
women - devoid of fear or sensitivity. But by implication such work
also reveals the tortured and perverted nature of many men's
sexuality. No such implications are needed when looking at erotic art
- you have in one condescend image both a representation of the male
artists' desires and also a clue to his fears. On the Internet many
porn sites are anonymous, staged in far away countries and its male
controllers and actors are hidden - they are beyond scrunity, public
reproach or investigation. The pornographic artist on the other hand
is as much on view as his muse - he cannot escape responsibility for
his work. This I believe gives the artist's work a moral dimension and
subjective vulnerability - unseen in commercial porn. If you want to
check out my erotic/pornographic art check it out at www.thepanicartist.com
Phil
"cypher" <cyp...@thepanicartist.com> wrote in message
news:1176248522.6...@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>
> Normally the reviews I post on art are based not on my encyclopedic
> knowledge of paintings and artists through reproduction -
"The artist has only to trust his eyes" Rodin
"Give me mud and I will paint you the flesh of Venus" Delacroix
I think you are in a minority. Erotic works will never be mainstream.
However, the demand may well be sufficient to sustain a few artists.
Phil
Mani Deli
wrote:
An honest message worth reading---
-snipped
> Porn for me now is a habitual and rather jaded experience. It
>is pure recreation - not a profound search for the truth to my
>existence.
>
>As a middle aged man - I look now with some fear to the youth -
>worried that their present day soaking in porn on the Internet might
>lead boys to become aggressive misogynists and girls to become
>masochistic sex objects. I have absolutely no idea what effects seeing
>so much depraved and perverted porn will do to their sense of
>themselves or life.
I suspect most will eventually get bored of it and move on.
> -----Maybe
>all this Internet porn will have no effect of society at large - much
>in the same way that previous pornographic revolutions had no effect
>on hypocrisy and shame.
>
>The division between erotic art works that are deemed acceptable and
>pornographic works which are reviled and banned from public venues has
>long been a subject of intense debate. An argument not helped by the
>canniness of many artists through out history who have cleverly
>produced semi-adventurous work which steps slightly outside the norm
>but not so far as to receive universal condemnation.
Erotica and porn are aspects of subject matter. What counts is how
well its done, just like all other artwork. It has an added attraction
as the forbidden.
>The common place notion that the erotic or pornographic cannot be art
>is based on historical ignorance not reality.
-and prudery mostly derived from religion.
>--self-censorship, familial censorship, political attack and religious
>condemnation it is a miracle that any erotic art works survive at all.
It survives above all when it is quality artwork.
>To a connoisseur critic like Kenneth Clark, the main criticism of
>erotic art is its inferiority as art - compared with the masterful
>work of the old masters. But such an argument to my mind is utterly
>spurious.
Clark was a prude and a poor historian.
As to the best modern day porn check out
http://arterotica.nice.ru/index.php/images/Hajime_Sorayama_Myth/8/
and the rest of his work, here and on other sites.
Compare it to the work of the other artists here and you will see why
he is regarded as a master and is avidly collected, without any
standard bullshit necessary for Modern Art fame.
Also check out Gill Bruvel http://www.bruvel.com/shop/
Tired of the pompous pretensions of Modern Art?
check out my web pages at http://home.primus.ca/~nogod/
skill, no art
CB
"Mani Deli" <ma...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:mf9t13dojgsovi5ed...@4ax.com...
>
> As to the best modern day porn check out
> http://arterotica.nice.ru/index.php/images/Hajime_Sorayama_Myth/8/
> and the rest of his work, here and on other sites.
>
> Compare it to the work of the other artists here and you will see why
> he is regarded as a master and is avidly collected, without any
> standard bullshit necessary for Modern Art fame.
>
> Also check out Gill Bruvel http://www.bruvel.com/shop/
>
>
Cool, finally the perfect wall accessory to go with the 8-track tape system,
big screen TV, orange pile carpets and stucco ceiling in the rec room! Ideal
matches for the Sears French Provincial end tables (with real lava lamps)
and matching couch! Are they available in black velvet as well? Somethng
nice to look at when ya get tired of beating the old lady, and the kids are
happily valiumed to sleep....A couple of brewski's from the built in bar,
and some of that stuff on the wall. BTW, ya think they could do a similar
airbrush on the truck?
Cheers;
Chris
Bill
>
> read more »
This tells us much more than we ever wanted to know about your,
fetish Sipher. Take your head out from between you legs. You'll
find a world of art out there that will amaze you .
have a nice day
dr.klump
time when sex education was a personal experience not a subject in
school.I think most artists do 'dabble'from time to time in creating
erotic art,because we are just as vulerable as anyone else to our need
to express desires forbidden.Or for reasons of morality,or even
physicly are incapable of actually performing.fantasy is almost always
better than reality anyways.Most of that stuff hurts,if we are honest
with ourselves.some of the positions in the kama sutra,you would have
to be an acrobate to perform. still worth a try,but more likly to
inspire a fit of giggling when you fall off the bed. sex education is
still in the dark woods of ignorance. I have spent the last three
years with people half my age(or younger) and they don't even know the
proper medical names for their own body parts let alone the opposite
gender.I was always considered as a young woman of being quiet liberal
minded,with age and experience I have become more of a romantic,and my
erotic art is now of a more gentle nature,intimacy being parimount
instead of gratification.I suppose that has more to do with three plus
decades of experience,than lust.The marriage bed is undefiled,in my
belief system,so,whatever two people who love one another,and have
made that commitment,do within the context of love,is O.K. with
GOD.The art produced by me personally are of things I am now incapable
of doing,with a body,that still exists within the context of skin no
longer subtle,or nimble,with a partner who no longer exists in my
life.When we are young our hearts are passionate fickle things,as we
age,we mellow with time like wine and see the joining of flesh as an
intimate occasion to share with another person, a sacred part of
ourselves.These are just the ramblings of an old woman,who still
misses the warmth of shareing.My opinion is only mine.
cypher
Thank you very much for sharing these thoughts with us. Your honesty
and sanity are a rareity in these groups. I really enjoyed your
thoughts on sex and identified with a lot of what you wrote. Thanks
Again.
Cypher
dr.klump
last night called (I think)'American Stag' with Tommy Chong.it was an
interesting show.I did a paper last year about Robert Mapplethorpes
"Dirty Pictures"starring John Wood.It really made me question myself
on what was erotic,and what is porn.I suppose the best definition I
ever heard on the subject was this"porography is anything that can
give a hard-on to a Judge" We all have to make our own judgements. ;)
cypher
Yes well its funny how old porn and stag films are now so boring
sexually - but so much more interesting as historical documents.
All The Best
Cypher