Erotic art

Art and Pornography presents a series of essays
which investigate the artistic status and aesthetic
dimension of pornographic pictures, films, and
literature, and explores the distinction, if there is
any, between pornography and erotic art. Is there
any overlap between art and pornography, or are
the two mutually exclusive? If they are, why is
that? If they are not, how might we characterize
pornographic art or artistic pornography, and how
might pornographic art be distinguished, if at all,
from erotic art? Can there be aesthetic experience of
pornography? What are some of the psychological,
social, and political consequences of the creation and
appreciation of erotic art or artistic pornography?
Leading scholars from around the world address these
questions, and more, and bring together different
aesthetic perspectives and approaches to this widely
consumed, increasingly visible, yet aesthetically
underexplored cultural domain. The book, the first
of its kind in philosophical aesthetics, will contribute
to a more accurate and subtle understanding of the
many representations that incorporate explicit sexual
imagery and themes, in both high art and demotic
culture, in Western and non-Western contexts. It is
sure to stir debate, and healthy controversy.

Wilhelm von Gloeden, a minor German aristocrat, and his cousin, Guglielmo Plüschow —both homosexual, both photographers — succumbed to what historian Robert Aldrich has called "the seduction of the Mediterranean," a mythic construct of southern Italy that was a central theme in homoerotic art and literature from the 1750s to the 1950s. Although Plüschow has been overshadowed by his more famous relative, his work was more transgressive, and as his life demonstrates, he was much more the "sexual outlaw," to borrow the American author John Rechy's locution. This paper compares the lives and work of Gloeden and Plüschow but focuses mainly on the latter. I present biographical detail and cultural history and I discuss the politics of representation as embodied in his (and his cousin's) images of Southern Italian masculinity

The essay takes it starting point from the question, how women Surrealists depict sexuality. Images of female erotic fantasies have been far less analyzed than the erotic fantasies of their male Surrealist colleagues. The essay puts forward the thesis that women Surrealists use flora and fauna symbols in juxtaposition with their own bodies to enable both freedom of imagination and sexual empowerment. Hybridity and metamorphosis are methods to self-define, within the realm of dreams. The essay analyzes selected paintings by the Scandinavian Surrealists Rita Kernn-Larsen and Elsa Thoresen and compare them to their international contemporaries. The cases of Kernn-Larsen and Thoresen both show how sexual fantasy is linked to female subjectivity, and how women artists found each their individual visualization of eroticism. Furthermore, the view that Surrealist women's use of nature symbols is primarily connected to a fertile, reproductive "Mother Earth" ideal is countered. Rather, women artists consciously invoke the complete range of roles and clichés surrounding the woman-nature link; they take these allegories and recreate them into their own versions, including images of savageness and shadiness, the "immoral" side of nature.

In a recent paper Sheila Lintott and Sherri Irvin (2017) present a feminist critique of sexiness and point to two problems in particular. The first is that women are considered sexy in accordance with an externally dictated conception of sexiness. The second problem is that women are considered sexy in accordance with an unduly narrow conception of sexiness, one that focuses predominantly on the body and thus equates sexiness with objecthood. I offer a critical examination of these claims and consider the role of pornography in steering our sexual desires and influencing our conceptions of sexiness.

For as long as men have existed, the female figure has been a source of great interest to them. Man is fascinated with Woman's undeniable power to sexually arouse. Naturally, artists throughout the centuries have expressed these desires in the form of erotic imagery. Two such images of this vast genre are Frederic Leighton's Flaming June (1895), and Erwin Blumenfeld's Wet Veil, Paris (1937). Not only related generally as fine art erotica, these two pictures are remarkable similar in detail. Yet these images were made, one by an Englishman, one by a German, over forty years apart. As can be expected, despite their shared subject matter, there are many differences between the two.

Unveiling the Veiled
Royal Consorts, Slaves and Prostitutes in Qajar Photographs

Photo exhibition curated by: Dr. Pedram Khosronejad
Associate Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies, Oklahoma State University

A special Exhibit and Panel Discussion as part of the UCSB Conference on:

"Slavery and Sexual Labor in the Middle East and North Africa"
Mosher Alumni House, McCune Library, UC Santa Barbara.

Saturday October 20th 2018
Co-sponsored by: The Iranian Studies Initiative, UCSB, the Middle East Studies Program, SBCC and the International Qajar Studies Association (IQSA)

When Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut prints arrived in the European art world of the late nineteenth century, they caused a sensation and influenced artists as diverse as van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Rodin. Picasso first encountered their bold stylization and expressive flair as a young artist in Barcelona, but his connection with Japanese art has been comparatively neglected by critical studies until now.
Although Picasso expressed an ambivalent attitude to the Japonisme movement, it has recently been discovered that he personally owned more than sixty of the highly erotic prints known as shunga. Now a selection of these rare works from his private collection has been brought together by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and is shown here for the first time along with Picasso’s own prints and drawings. This juxtaposition reveals a series of fascinating parallels and convergences in terms of both subject matter and composition. The stylistic echoes are most visible in Picasso’s erotic drawings of the first decade of the twentieth century, and in a series of witty and explicit prints made toward the end of his life, which share the frank yet playful attitude to sexual relationships that shines through in the best Japanese works of this genre.

A paper outlining highlights of the Thavibu Art Collection, a collection of Southeast Asian contemporary art that was acquired over a period of the last 15 years. There are brief write-ups of artists as well as illustrations of six art works from each of Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar/Burma. In total there is a selection of 18 artists and works.

At its height in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japonisme had a tremendous impact on Western art. In this publication, author Ricard Bru approaches the cultural phenomenon of Japonisme from an innovative standpoint. He presents an in-depth discussion of the influence of Japanese printed erotic imagery by ukiyo-e masters such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai on European artists, including Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustav Klimt and Pablo Picasso, as well as writers, critics, and collectors, such as Edmond de Goncourt, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Émile Zola. With over 160 color illustrations sourced from public and private collections, Erotic Japonisme demonstrates the rich artistic dialogue that existed between Europe and Japan.

At no point in the apocryphal text does Judith, a wise and beautiful Jewish widow, sit on Holofernes, the Assyrian general laying siege to her city. Yet, in 1525, Barthel Beham, a young artist from Nuremberg, created Judith Seated on the Body of Holofernes, an engraving in which a voluptuous nude Judith sits atop Holofernes’s nude torso. Neither the textual nor the visual traditions explain Beham’s choice to perch the chaste woman on top of her slain enemy, so what sources inspired the printmaker? What is the meaning of Judith’s provocative position? The tiny printed image depicts the relationship between a male figure and a female figure. Thus, in order to appreciate the complexity of that relationship, I begin this thesis by reviewing what it meant to be a man and what it meant to be a woman in early sixteenth-century Germany. Because gender roles and the dynamics between the sexes were so complex, I encourage scholars to reevaluate Weibermacht (Power of Women) imagery. The nudity...

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey
Male–male sexuality is the central trope of Boys’ Love (BL) manga with stories tending to revolve around a central uke-seme (‘bottom’–‘top’) pair. Although focused on men, BL is produced and consumed primarily by women. This article presents, from an anglophone British perspective, analysis of age-stratified male–male romance – paederasty – as portrayed in BL. My corpus consists of 234 commercially-translated original Japanese BL manga stories, created by 100 different mangaka (author-artists), published commercially in English between 2003 and 2012. A total of 68 (30%) of these stories were identified as involving agestratified relationships, eight of which were selected for detailed analysis. Seven were selected for typicality: Waru (2007) by Yukari Hashida deemed the most typical. Fangs (2008) by Hiroki Kusumoto was also included in analysis as the most atypical age-stratified story in order to test the robustness of identified patterns. I argue that that, from an anglophone perspective, the characteristic themes of age-stratified BL map surprising well onto the eroticised intra-familial dynamics of Freud and the intra- and inter-familial economics of Lévi-Strauss. The patterns identified are evidenced and discussed under the following headings: the mother identified son, the doubly divested man, the castrated father, men on the market and the mother with the phallus. These themes help build and substantiate my argument that age-stratified BL might work, within an anglophone context at least, as a feminist critique of patriarchy through the mechanism of phallic divestiture.

Art or Porn? The popular media will often choose this heading when reviewing the latest sexually explicit novel, film, or art exhibition. The underlying assumption seems to be that the work under discussion has to be one or the other, and cannot be both. But is this not a false dilemma? Can one really draw a sharp line between the pornographic and the artistic? Isn't it time to make room for pornographic art and for an aesthetic investigation of pornography? In answering these questions this book will draw on insights from many different disciplines, including philosophy, feminist theory, aesthetics, art history, film studies, theatre studies, as well as on the experience of people who are actually operating in the art world and porn industry. By offering a variety of theoretical approaches and examples taken from a wide range of art forms and historical periods, the reader will gain a fuller and deeper comprehension of the relations and frictions between art and pornography.

This paper problematizes five central themes regarding Qajar art in general and erotic representation in Qajar art in particular. The paper addresses the continued existence of the tropes that the Qajar era is not worthy of serious academic study; that concern with erotica was a unique Qajar elite concern resulting from their debased morality and that this was unique to the Qajar era; that erotica was a particularly Eastern, read Iranian, addiction in contra-distinction to the morally superior West (the colonialist and orientalist thesis); that erotic representation in paintings and other media specific to the early 19 th century was accessible to a wider population; and finally, that Qajar art is not high art because high art is not hybrid art, that only pure indigenous art can be considered high art. Beyond addressing and countering these five themes, this paper concludes with a series of "coincidences" of artistic erotic representation between West and East (Europe and Qajar Iran), and suggests that these cannot simply be coincidences.

Wie kaum eine andere Skulptur zieht der Barberinische Faun die Betrachter in seinen Bann, dient als Folie moderner Kunst und als modische Ikone. Hierbei stehen nicht zuletzt die erotischen Aspekte der Figur im Zentrum des Interesses – sowohl die hetero- wie homoerotischen! Der Beitrag fasst zusammen, was hinsichtlich der Aufstellung, Wirkung und Rezeption der Statue bekannt ist.

The attached thesis is a reformatted and slightly edited version of the original on file in the libraries of Southern Methodist University.  It does not include the original illustrations.  However, images of these works can be found in the publications in the bibliography, as well as in some newer publications: Mary Vaccaro, Parmigianino: The Paintings; Sylvie Beguin, Parmigianino: The Drawings; and Achim Gnann, Parmigianino.

Nitrate fantasies. Early pornographic and erotic cinema in Argentina

Abstract: The first pornographic film would have been shot in Argentina. This theory, supported by several of the leading specialists on the subject, states that this country was also a nerve center in the creation of this kind of films during the silent period. The production, however, was not limited to  movies of sexual explicit content, but it also included erotic films that trascended the underground brothel circuits, reaching sometimes the most selected commercial cinemas in the country. Despite the few examples that have survived and the exiguous and uncertain information that exists about them, this paper attempts to unravel some of the myths and truths surrounding the birth of this kind of films in Argentina. Based on a thorough research on film and paper sources, we propose a tour of the early milestones of the genre and its always troublesome relation to censorship, which drove the vernacular directors to resort to fine arts, literature, theater and even science to cover up the scandalous subjects of these films. Halfway between lust and high culture, between vaudeville and education, this almost unknown filmography includes some of the most interesting and innovative local films of this period.

La primera película pornográfica se habría filmado en Argentina. Esta teoría -a la que adhieren varios de los principales historiadores del género- sostiene que este país fue, además, un centro neurálgico en la elaboración de films pornográficos durante el período silente. Esta producción no se limitó, sin embargo, a películas de contenido sexual explícito sino que incluyó también films eróticos que trascendieron la clandestinidad de los circuitos prostibularios, alcanzando, en ocasiones, los más selectos cines comerciales del país. A pesar de los escasos ejemplos conservados y de la exigua e incierta información que los circunda, en este trabajo intentamos desentrañar algunos de los mitos y verdades que rodean los inicios de este cine en la Argentina. Partiendo de una minuciosa investigación con fuentes fílmicas y extrafilmicas, proponemos un recorrido por los tempranos hitos del género y de su siempre problemática relación con la censura, que llevó a los directores vernáculos a buscar alianzas con las bellas artes, la literatura, el teatro e incluso la ciencia para enmascarar las escandalosas temáticas abordadas. A medio camino entre la lujuria y la alta cultura, entre el vaudeville y la educación, esta filmografía casi desconocida incluye algunos de los films locales más curiosos e innovadores de este período.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete):
https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Madill, A. (2011-2013) Understanding Japanese "Boys' Love" manga from a UK perspective. British Academy.

These 234 BL stories in commercial English translation constitute my sample (up to November 2013). I define a 'story' as a narrative focusing on one central uke-seme pair and sometimes that has has to be a judgement call.  All stories have been coded using a large number of content and theoretical codes. I am interested in coding patterns but the main orientation of my analysis is qualitative.""""

Presentazione - Introduzione - i. Le Terme Suburbane - ii. La decorazione pittorica dell'apodyterium - 2. Le scene erotiche - 3. Ipotesi sul significato degli elementi rettangolari e dei numeri - 4. Il valore testimoniale e la peculiarità iconografica degli affreschi erotici delle Terme Suburbane - 5. L'ultima fase di vita delle Terme Suburbane: la cancellazione delle pitture erotiche - iii. I rapporti fra iconografia e ubicazione delle pitture - 1. La tradizione artistica delle tabelle erotiche: ubicazione, funzioni ed uso - 2. La diffusione dei bagni misti nel I secolo d.C. in area campana. Implicazioni funzionali e sociali - iv. Conclusioni - Appendice I: L'arredo dell'apodyterium, di Stephan Mols - Appendice II: Il piano superiore delle Terme Suburbane, di Gianluca Soricelli - Appendice III: Note sulla diagnosi e l'individuazione dell'idrocele dall'età antica all'età moderna, di Paolo Sambroia - Abbreviazioni bibliografiche - Indice dei nomi e dei luoghi - Indice delle figure.

This article analyzes the shunga collection owned by the Mito Tokugawa family. It presents the discovery of six pieces from the Mito Tokugawa, one of the three branches of the Tokugawa. This collection helps us understand the uses and the spread of erotic art among the ruling classes in Edo period Japan. The collection, formed of diferent types of works (scrolls, books, prints, and sex toys) is important in documenting the high degree of acceptance of erotic art within the Tokugawa family. In particular, the manuscript notes written by the daimyo, Tokugawa Nariaki, show that the works were acquired as part of a regular family practice over the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. This suggests that it was common for all daimyo families to collect shunga.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Abstract
‘Fujoshi’ (rotten girl) is a derogatory Japanese term for female fans of homoerotic manga and anime in the genre know as Boys’ Love (BL). BL is a global phenomenon and one of the largest, female-oriented, erotic subcultures. I have underway, what is already, the biggest survey of the Anglophone fandom (https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey) and have, so far, completed 14 face-to-face and around 100 e-mail interviews. This is the first project I have conducted on sexually explicit material and, although I consider myself to be a fujoshi, I am not, otherwise, a user of pornography/sexually explicit material. In fact, this research has presented a huge challenge to me in terms of becoming more comfortable discussing sexual topics and, even more personally, in making my own investment in male-male sexuality public. This has meant dealing with feelings of embarrassment and shame, but also of relief in finding and communicating with other women who have a similar erotic fantasy life. However, the project has also made me feel, at times, quite anxious given recent UK prohibited images of children legislation. What does BL represent for me that I am willing to put myself through this, spend most of my spare time on it, and is it really ‘research’?

Before the turn of the twenty-first century, the role of eroticism in Dutch art and the purpose of its images has largely being neglected. However, in their time these representations of nudity and salacious images and the subjects they implied were often cited in contemporary writings, songbooks and farces. The authors usually attributed a moralising meaning to them so as to ‘justify’ their appearance.

This dissertation will consider the role of eroticism in the art of the Dutch Mannerists of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. It will focus on the paintings, engravings and drawings between 1585 and 1630 from the artists working in Haarlem and Utrecht. The adoption and development of this phenomenon is examined in chapter one. Chapter two looks at eroticism in works with a mythological subject. Finally, chapter three deals with the salacious images with a biblical or religious subject. Subsequently the role of these images in the oeuvre of these artists and in society will be revealed. The role of eroticism in biblical and religious subjects has not been analysed extensively, this dissertation aims to enrich existing research.

This dissertation draws on a contextual and object-based approach in which primary published educational books, farces and songbooks from the Dutch seventeenth century as well as more recent secondary sources are used to construct an argument. Images from the Netherlands Institute of History archive will prove insight to the extent of the role of eroticism in Dutch Mannerism.

"Abstract:
Ovid's "Ars Amatoria" is meant to offer a true recantation of amor, a palinode of love that includes an apology of poetry. Palinode and apology have become necessary and urgent, for Ovid, for two reasons, which offer a double challenge.
The first challenge comes from the love poetry by his contemporaries. Elegy is lament, protest, recrimination, regret. Occasionally praise, it morphs, more
often, into blame. Supposedly intended to convey erotic passion and impatience for pleasure, it turns into an intermittent profession of pain.
The second challenge comes from the carmina of Lucretius. In those carmina,both love and poetry are crucial, and yet highly problematical, because both, poetry and love, undermine the project of an unrelenting argument on behalf of reason. Passion and fiction are a threat. The philosophical effect of such a critique is immense and terrifying.

I will set out to outline the discord between anti-erotic ratio and ars amatoria. I will then be in a position to provide a panoramic view of Ovid’s work. Ovid’s poetry, I will argue, is philosophy, the musical thinking of a lover of myths, a philómythos who, as Aristotle would put it, was a sort of philosopher, philósophos."

Ce mémoire analyse le contenu iconographique d'une sélection de gravures européennes créées au XVIe siècle montrant l’equus eroticus, la position sexuelle de la femme qui chevauche l’homme, ainsi que leur réception positive ou négative par les instances de l'époque.