Love & Desire - an exhibition of erotic art

Keeping me busy the past week or so has been the Love & Desire show at Spiral Gallery in Bega. A first for this gallery on this theme, and a testament to the renewed energy and outlook of this artist run initiative in a town known more for its cheese than its culture! It is interesting to see how different artists have approached the subject, and how they have interpreted the 'brief', if indeed there was one. Without going into a polemic about what constitutes 'erotic art' (perhaps for a later post?) here are a few of the works that I thought hit the mark and had something to say. Apologies for seeming too egotistical by including my own humble offering among these...

Liam Ryan, Three Graces, 2014, Oil on canvas

Luiza Urbanik, C'mon, 2014, Acrylic on paper

Luiza Urbanik, Kiss Me, 2014, Acrylic on paper

Victoria Nelson, Love Letters 2, 2014, Mixed media

Michael Adams, Mantasy, 2014, Photography

Michael Adams, Penis, 2014, Photography

Rick Andersen, Mouth, 2014, Photomedia

Suzanne Oakman, The Old Couple, 2014, Ceramic and wire

anonymous waves, Return to Reason, 2014, video still

The exhibition runs until 20th August at Spiral Gallery, 47 Church Street, Bega, NSW. Mon-Frid 10-4 and Sat 10-1.

Clothed men and naked women...

...is a classic (some might argue puerile) male erotic fantasy.Three of my favourites...

Edouard Manet,  Le déjeuner sur l'herbe ("Luncheon on the Grass"), 1862-63, Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Manet's masterpiece, the female figure in the foreground a combination of Victorine Meurent's face and Manet's wife Suzanne Leenhoff's body. But it is not the nudity that interests us here, but Manet's genius, not only as a painter, but in his capacity in his great works to engage and involve the audience. Emile Zola said "Painters, especially Édouard Manet, who is an analytic painter, do not have this preoccupation with the subject which torments the crowd above all; the subject, for them, is merely a pretext to paint, while for the crowd, the subject alone exists."

Julian Wasser, Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz at his retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art, 1963, Photograph

Well, we can allow the sublime Marcel his little jokes as he sits in front of The Large Glass contemplating his next move. After all, he considered most of his art an "amusement". For an analysis of his chess ability see Jennifer Shahade, who is a two time US chess champion. Jennifer has also turned the tables on Duchamp with her own video of her playing a naked male opponent while commenting on aspects of Duchamp's game. She said of the video "I guess being naked, cold and in a doomed chess position took away some of his natural cheer." The video can be found on the same page...

Josef Breitenbach, Dr. Riegler and J. Greno, Munich, 1933, Photograph

Arguably one of the most mysterious and therefore erotic photographs ever taken. All we know about it is that Riegler was Breitenbach's best friend and a journalist. There are several other pics from the same session if you feel like searching. What, you're leaving already?

"It's odd, I always thought I made men uneasy"

The first in a series on masterpieces of erotic art...

Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, Oil on canvas, Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The title of this post is a quote from Victorine Meurent, the model for Edouard Manet's Olympia...

She stares at me. I stare back, embarrassed to take my eyes away from hers for fear of being seen as a voyeur. But I cannot ignore the petite, porcelain, perfect figure. The cat is clearly not impressed by my presence. The maid holds flowers. Are they a gift from me? Will they be accepted, or discarded?

She looks at me with detachment and a slight bemusement. Manet has made me confront my own sexuality by inviting me to participate in this picture. This woman is not for sale...I can admire but not touch. Not only a superb exercise in painting (the form in the figure achieved with true economy of tone), but an exercise in moral standards and the role of women in society, just as relevant today as it was in the nineteenth century. This is what makes Olympia erotic, not the fact that it is a nude...I feel uneasy.

For the Victorine Meurent story I recommend Alias Olympia by Eunice Lipton, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992.