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Shelley’s Art Scandal – When Does Art Become Pornography?
This subject is a fine line one in my opinion. There are plenty of paintings from through the ages that show naked women lounging around displaying their femininity, equally there is an abundance of statues which show men standing around, wrestling or hunting naked. These are usually considered classical art, because someone has taken the time to paint or sculpt them in fine detail, where as now, if it was a photo of the same image, it would probably be considered lewd or pornographic. I can remember, way back in the 90’s, listening to the comedian Bill Hicks on his “Relentless” tour, and there is a piece of that stand…
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The Temple of Venus: The Sex Museum, Amsterdam
The text below is the excerpt of the book Sex in the Cities – Amsterdam, written by Hans-Jürgen Döpp, published by Parkstone International. Nobody thought it would make any money when the Sex Museum opened its doors in 1985. For the first few weeks, admission was actually free. Today, however, over 500,000 visitors to Amsterdam enter the museum every year. Perhaps it was a good omen when two ancient objects of an erotic nature turned up in the soil during excavation for the building of the museum. One of them was a cracked tile on which a card-playing man was depicted sporting an evident erection – maybe betraying the excitement of…
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Sex in the Cities – Berlin
The text below is the excerpt of the book Sex in the Cities – Berlin, written by Hans-Jürgen Döpp, published by Parkstone International. The many and varied points of view encountered in this museum demonstrate the multifarious aspects of sexuality. The exhibits reveal that nothing is more natural than sexual desire; and, paradoxically, nothing is less natural than the forms in which this desire expresses itself or finds satisfaction. Items long hidden in the vaults of public museums and galleries of private collectors can be seen here. Many of these images and objects were forbidden in a western society which was less open to sexuality and anything associated with it. So they…
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Ah, Valentine’s day, the day of love… (Part 3)
Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here. One of their false beliefs connected with this festival was that the names of girls who had reached marriageable age would be written on small rolls of paper and placed in a dish on a table. Then the young men who wanted to get married would be called, and each of them would pick a piece of paper. He would put himself at the service of the girl whose name he had drawn for one year so that they could find out about one another. Then they would get married, or they would repeat the same process again on the day of…
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Ah, Valentine’s day, the day of love… (Part 1)
The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love. — Valentine’s Day— the name of the holiday conjures up childhood images of heart-shaped greeting cards, chubby cupids, and giggly public-school romancing. Yet this holiday, like most others, has been commercially exploited. Nowadays all true sentimentalists, from hard-core prodigals to casual window shoppers, must go to great lengths to avoid the thousands of varieties of mass-produced Valentine’s cards, candles and assorted knick-knacks which are displayed along the routes of their once-dreamy rambles. Romantic purists will undoubtedly appreciate the non-commercial origins of “lover’s day”, for though It Is now just…
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Hot for cold evenings
Whether you’re alone or with special someone, skip the flowers, resist the chocolate. Look for love under the covers — of a book. Below is the recommendation for the best titles for long autumn evenings. Sex in the cities Professor of the cultural history of erotic art, Hans-Jürgen Dopp has been gathering erotic works of art for more than thirty years. His collection has an international reputation, developed by his numerous publications and exhibitions. This exceptional boxed set compiles three books which explore the material expressions of eroticism throughout three European capitals: Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris. The author also chose to confront themes such as eroticism and pornography, or the…
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The Many Faces of Sex in Contemporary Art
“Sex and art are the same thing.” Picasso said that. Well, I’ve tried both and no, Picasso, they’re not. But he still has a point there. (It’s Picasso after all!) In the history of mankind, people couldn’t help but having sex. And art couldn’t help but making it one of its main subjects. Sex rarely fails to attract attention, advertisement knows that. There’s beauty in it. Moreover, there’s a whole variety of emotions and concepts that can be expressed through sexuality. Nobody is more aware of it than contemporary artists. Let’s take two examples… We usually don’t tend to see sex as something that creates relations of power. It does…
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