Eroticism and Art
From the surreal eroticism of Salvador Dali to the kitsch eroticism of Jeff Koons, erotic art has always inflamed opinion and, even today, such images are considered provocative, dangerous, and unwelcome in the public sphere. \ Now Alyce Mahon, the feisty Irish art historian, takes us on an imaginative and engaging tour of erotic art in all its forms, including painting, sculpture, video art, installation, performance art, and photography. Mahon explores eroticism from its most romantic to...
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From the surreal eroticism of Salvador Dali to the kitsch eroticism of Jeff Koons, erotic art has always inflamed opinion and, even today, such images are considered provocative, dangerous, and unwelcome in the public sphere. Now Alyce Mahon, the feisty Irish art historian, takes us on an imaginative and engaging tour of erotic art in all its forms, including painting, sculpture, video art, installation, performance art, and photography. Mahon explores eroticism from its most romantic to its most explicit: from Impressionist Paris where the naked body signaled the rise of a new, modern world, to the contemporary scene where artists use eroticism to address the politics of race, gender, and sexual orientation. The book examines some of the key movements and moments in modern art history: from the birth of Realism with Courbet in Paris, to the Surrealist subversion of taboo, to Nazi propaganda's use of the heroic nude, to the soft-porn of Pop art, to the vogue for carnality in contemporary art in Los Angeles, Paris, and London. Indeed, Mahon provides a concise history of art in the twentieth century through the lens of eroticism, offering original insights into works of art that do not sit easily within popular notions of taste and that have provoked controversy and calls for censorship. Her discussion includes the work of such European and American artists as Egon Schiele, Hans Bellmer, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nancy Goldin, Orlan, Franco B, and Annie Sprinkle. With over a hundred illustrations, including sixty-five in full color, here is a strikingly written and stimulating history of eroticism in modern Western art.Library JournalThis is arguably the most thoughtful book on erotic art recently published. Mahon (modern art, Cambridge) reflects on issues raised by the historically persistent production of erotica from the perspective of an art historian. The major focus of the text is the last 150 years of Western erotic art, although an introductory essay notes its broader history. Chapters follow a roughly chronological arrangement, with subject matter ranging from an examination of such traditional 19th-century themes as the nude, bathers, and the exotic other to major 20th-century art movements such as Surrealism to recent developments like the impact of rapid political and social change in expanding the breadth of erotic imagery. The illustrations are, unfortunately, too few to reveal fully the author's reasoned arguments, and the selection tends to favor tamer, less explicit representations. Nevertheless, this book is highly recommended for any academic library with an interest in art or sexology.-Eugene C. Burt, Data Arts, Seattle Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
AcknowledgementsIntroductionEroticism's Intent Seeing Sexual Desire The Erotic Tradition Taboo and Transgression1. The Rhetoric of the NudeThe Dynamics of Desire Orientalism New Masculinities Female Loveliness The End of the Age of Innocence2. The Naked TruthPainting Modern Life Bathing Beauties Male Bathers3. Primitive DrivesGauguin the 'Barbarian'Les Demoiselles d'AvignonGerman Expressionism Sigmund Freud, Vienna, and Egon Schiele4. The Erotic Body between the WarsDada Beginnings Weimar Eroticism Male Fantasies5. Surrealism's Erotic PoliticsSade Is 'Surrealist in Sadism'Negrophilia and Surrealist Photography Woman Surrealists6. Erotic Art in Wartime and AfterSurrealism in Exile Modernist Abstraction and Cold War Politics The Search for the Absolute7. Eros and the 1960sPop Art and the All-American Nude Andy Warhol Performing the Erotic Body8. Visual Pleasure and Identity PoliticsSexual Politics Same-sex Politics Race Politics Ethnic Identity9. Eroticism and the Culture Wars of the 1980s and the 1990sSexual Outlaws The AIDS Crisis Post Porn Modernism Sex and Magic The Black Male10. Erotic Fragmentation and AbjectionGender Trouble'Bad Girls of Contemporary British Art'Abject Suffering and DesireConclusionNotes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index
\ Library JournalThis is arguably the most thoughtful book on erotic art recently published. Mahon (modern art, Cambridge) reflects on issues raised by the historically persistent production of erotica from the perspective of an art historian. The major focus of the text is the last 150 years of Western erotic art, although an introductory essay notes its broader history. Chapters follow a roughly chronological arrangement, with subject matter ranging from an examination of such traditional 19th-century themes as the nude, bathers, and the exotic other to major 20th-century art movements such as Surrealism to recent developments like the impact of rapid political and social change in expanding the breadth of erotic imagery. The illustrations are, unfortunately, too few to reveal fully the author's reasoned arguments, and the selection tends to favor tamer, less explicit representations. Nevertheless, this book is highly recommended for any academic library with an interest in art or sexology.-Eugene C. Burt, Data Arts, Seattle Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \
