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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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Gay Art
Kunst und Homosexualität mag wie eine merkwürdige Kombination wirken. Beide Phänomene sind, seit es eine Überlieferung gibt, jedoch Teil der Geschichte der Menschheit.
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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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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
As much as elders tell young children to dismiss name-calling or bad words, words possess a stronger meaning than most people care to admit. A photograph may be worth 1,000 words, but can a word not also invite 1,000 ideas or influence 1,000 images? Art is subjective to the viewer’s personal history, and language is supposed to be agreed upon by the general audience, with dictionaries giving precise definitions to every word. But neither Merriam nor Webster can anticipate the insurgence of connotative meaning that can ultimately redefine a word in a specific culture. The importance of language and its relationship to art is currently being examined at the Tate…
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The Pleasures of Shunga
Tea ceremonies, bullet trains arriving to the exact second, intricately dressed, immaculate geisha and the importance of keeping face: these common images of Japan conjure up the notion of a highly-controlled and conservative society. Graphic images of enormous penises and a woman being pleasured by an octopus are not, perhaps, what you might expect. And indeed for the last century and a half the explicit art of shunga, or ‘spring pictures’ has been taboo in Japan- yet this only came about once the country began to absorb Western cultural influences. Before the late-19th century, the Japanese did not share the dominant Western idea that fine art and pornography were very…
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The Man who Loved Women
Sex sells. Or at least in today’s society, the marketing world strategically incorporates erotic imagery in advertisements to gain consumers’ attention. If the moniker “sex sells” is true for advertisements, could it also be true in art? In nude paintings, does the artist aim to “sell” something by enticing us with the image of a naked and supple body? When looking through Felix Vallotton’s artistic catalog, the amount of nudity is great. Vallotton used naked women in any context, from nude women bathing to nude women playing with kittens. Vallotton, like most artists, appreciated beauty, including the beauty of the naked human body. But while the artist might have seen…
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Why We Owe Spain a Big “Gracias”
This is how I started my office questionnaire (I take my research for these blogs very seriously): “What has Spain given the world….go:” These were the answers I received (and yes, some of the responders are Spanish): Helicopters “America” “Hot men” Tortilla
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Rodin, das Fleisch, der Marmor.
Dieser Titel weckt in mir das spontane und immense Verlangen nach einem gut gebratenem Beefsteak, außen scharf angebraten, innen zart rosa und in der Mitte noch etwas blutig, das ganze mit Salz und Pfeffer gewürzt – ein Genuss. Viele Vegetarier und Veganer, die meinen größten Respekt, aber auch mein Unverständnis haben, werden auf dieses Verlangen eher mit Abscheu oder Ekel reagieren. Fleisch ist generell ein viel erforschtes und heiß diskutiertes Thema. Isst man es oder isst man es nicht? Und wenn ja, ist zu viel rotes Fleisch ungesund? Wie kann ich mich ausgeglichen ernähren. Aber die entscheidende und meistumstrittene Frage überhaupt: Wie bereite ich ein gutes Stück Fleisch zu? Und…
This is an interactive art blog in multi languages, you will find new articles on artists, art history, exhibitions, etc. Contributions welcome.
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