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Art and Artists

Art and Pornography




Marlene Dumas (b1953) has been called ‘the world’s most interesting figure painter’. Her beautifully painted works, which can be seen …


Since her ironic Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab (1992), which delighted and enraged gallery goers in equal measure, Sarah …






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Tread the line between creativity and sex as we explore what separates these two terms


Allen Jones

[no title] (1976–7)

Tate


The distinction between erotic art and pornography is often debated, but rarely agreed upon. As western society becomes increasingly liberal, art becomes more experimental and the distribution of porn, commonplace. As a result art and pornography continue to merge.


Hans Bellmer

The Doll (1936, reconstructed 1965)

Tate


For many, the porn industry represents an archaic and outmoded view of women. It continues to promote an ideology of objectification and submission which is considered anti-progressive. There is concern that by normalising sex and subjugating the actors, porn and pornographic art may go as far as to encourage sexual violence.
Helen Longino defines ‘Pornography’ as:
A verbal or pictorial material which represents sexual behaviour that is degrading or abusive to one or more of the participants ...
This criteria often extends into the realm of art. In reference to Rene Magritte’s The Rape 1935, Susan Gubar said:
Because such an image of mindless physicality justifies rape ... [it] can be understood as a clear and present danger to women.
This idea can be applied to a number of other artworks; the headless, limbless female form in Hans Bellmer ’s The Doll c.1936, is another example.
Art acts as a mirror to the culture of its time. As our attitude towards sex becomes more inclusive, art continues to include sex in its canon with increasing, although tentative, acceptance. Where James Joyce saw his novel Ulysses 1922, banned for 10 years due to ‘explicit’ passages, and Egon Schiele served jail time for producing erotic drawings; we now see sex becoming a relevant and provocative conversation within contemporary art.
Marlene Dumas, Fingers 1999, 1999 © Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas has produced studies taken from mass produced pornographic images. This grants them, what Dumas calls, an ‘amoral touch’. It is interesting that she painted porn and not a life model in order to convey neutral morality. Just as ‘amoral’ stands directly between good and bad, and so, it seems, Dumas, refuses to pass judgement. Germain Greer develops this idea:
It seems to me that her frame of reference includes the rest of us in a ... culture that lives by prostituting everything, including art
In 1986 Dumas also drew an interesting distinction between the erotic and the pornographic:
At the moment my art is situated between the pornographic tendency to reveal everything and the erotic inclination to hide what it’s all about.


Jeff Koons

Made in Heaven (1989)

ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland


On the basis of this point of view, it could certainly be argued that Jeff Koons ’s series Made In Heaven 1989, is not art, but porn, since it leaves nothing to the imagination. Yet, as is the nature of the debate, Koons himself would not agree:
I’m not interested in pornography, I’m interested in the spiritual, to be able to show people that they can have impact, to achieve their desires.
This statement suggests Koon’s used pornographic images to transmute a concept beyond promoting sexual gratification. He wanted to elevate porn into art by giving it spiritual depth. Many critics believed Koon’s failed spectacularly in his intention but others responded more positively:
Made in Heaven is just mind-blowing. It was a border-less, boundary-less body of work. There was no separation between the artist’s life and his work. What he did is beyond Duchamp , beyond Warhol , beyond the readymade .
Opposing opinions and interpretations are a given within contemporary art, so some feel the only quality that can really be measured is the intention behind the work. Others argue that the artist’s intention holds less precedence than the experience of the model. Koons’s wife had starred in Porn films before, nevertheless even a practised performer can feel exploited:
I would like to be a wife who had been married to the same man for 30 years, with lots of children and grandchildren around. Instead, I am a woman alone… I did what I did, and I’m happy about it. But all the men around me exploited my sexy nature to take me to bed or to make money. As if sexual libertinism inevitably implied the absence of love and of sensitivity. I am a very romantic person, but nobody ever realised it….I repeat, I regret nothing – but I believe that I was never loved.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Cock and Devil 1982, printed 1990. Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Staller’s experience suggests that it was not the porn industry that caused her unhappiness, but the implication of porn in people’s minds. Pornography itself could have the potential to move beyond being symbolic of violence and female oppression, as we see in the relatively new genre of ‘female-friendly’ porn being produced today. Likewise if art is to reflect the experience of the artist, and also be, for many, an act of self-expression, then sex as subject matter for art should not be disregarded or censored. Hans Maes made this case in his essay Who Says Pornography Can’t Be Art? 2012:
Sexual experiences involve the deepest corners of ourselves and are among the most intense, powerful, emotional, and profound experiences we have. If pornography, which offers the most direct representation of, and access to, such experiences, can in principle be lifted into the realm of art…then I think we have every reason to encourage artists to attempt just that, to make intense, powerful, and profound works of pornographic art and rescue this much-maligned genre from the clutches of the seedy porn-barons.
If Maes is right, then it is not the distinction between Porn and Art which is the problem, but merely what Gubar calls the ‘ghettoizing’ of pornography. This encourages society to classify pornography as illicit and obscene, even when it is presented within an artistic context; as seen with the film series Destricted which was screened at Tate Modern in 2006 . If the intention and direction behind pornographic films and images continues to change it may eventually reach acceptance within the art world, then perhaps we can move past what Dumas describes as the ‘porno blues’:
too many bodies and not enough soul. She’s got the porno blues.



Marlene Dumas


,

Andrea Büttner


and

Jennifer Higgie


A close encounter with deeply personal and powerful works of art




Nudity in Art


What’s the Big Deal?








Nudity in Art


Acceptable vs Pornographic





Hey everyone, welcome back to another great article! As always, thanks for the continued support. What makes nudity in art acceptable, and what makes it pornographic? That’s what we’re going to discover today! The answer might be obvious, but there are more gray areas that you’re probably not aware of. We’ll be looking at some great quotes, while comparing tons of master paintings and photos. Let’s get into it!
This article was spawned by a great quote by Michelangelo:
“What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?”
Michelangelo is basically calling out all of the prudes that have a tough time viewing his nude paintings and drawings. He painted the Sistine Chapel, which means the church accepted the nudity he was portraying in his art. Michelangelo’s work must’ve been continually critiqued by sensitive people because he’s got several more quotes that defend his masterful work.
“And who is so barbarous as not to understand that the foot of a man is nobler than his shoe, and his skin nobler than that of the sheep with which he is clothed.”
“He who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture.”
So what is the big deal anyway? We are all adults and can handle nudity in a responsible way, right? Well, unfortunately it’s not as black and white like that. If we take nude paintings and put them in a book that children might read, it might create an impression on them that was premature. Take the work of Egon Shiele for instance. I wouldn’t want my two-year-old niece viewing one of his nude paintings (see article). It’d be too vulgar for her innocent mind…even though she’d probably not understand what she’s looking at. We have to continually teach them what is “good” vs what is considered “bad” in order for them to eventually form a strong opinion.
There are many other reasons why nude art isn’t acceptable, and one might stem from the opinion of a recovering sex addict. I could see how nudity could be bad for someone that was once a sex or porn addict. Does this mean we should ban nude art or nudity from art schools or figure drawing classes? Definitely not. Just like we don’t remove liquor ads from the world for people in Alcoholics Anonymous, or ban all fast food joints for people on a diet. Temptation is everywhere, regardless of what we do.
Hmm, there’s a word…temptation. Maybe that is what makes nudity in art pornographic. Does it tempt us? Does it arouse us? Well, we can’t really judge it in that way because people are aroused differently. Also, people are desensitized (see Day 297 ) as they grow older, so what might’ve been obscene when they were four years old is probably not an issue when they’re twenty. This also means the culture changes with time. Just look at the history of marijuana and you’ll see how the culture has slowly changed it’s perception.
So what makes nudity in art acceptable vs pornographic? Let’s dig deeper into some masterful work and find out!
OK, first let’s look at nude vs clothed to address the quotes by Michelangelo, then we’ll take a look at the subtleties that push nude art into a questionable area of eroticism and pornography.
Here we have a comparison of Pablo Picasso’s art. We’ve got a clothed painting on the left and a nude drawing on the right. They are both created in the same “monumental” style, similar pose, and same subject matter. The only major thing that is different is the lighting, but it’s not enough to create a bias.
So, which one is more interesting? Was Michelangelo right? I think he was. I find the nude much more interesting than the painting on the right. How about you? So even though these are considered abstract paintings, the abstract nude is more interesting than the clothed one.
Here’s a comparison of Gregory Crewdson’s photos, where the one on the left is clothed and the one on the right is nude. Both have similar poses, environment, mirror reflections and lighting. Yet, most of us might find the nude one more interesting. Hmmm.
Is this nude photo pornographic? Not at all. But why not? Let’s keep digging to find out!
Here’s a couple of images by Alfred Cheney Johnston. The one on the left is clothed and the one on the right is nude. Both are artistically done, but which one verges on the “naughty” side? It’s the nude one this time, but why?
This question leads us to pose, which is one of the major things that can determine an acceptable image vs a pornographic one. We can see the difference a pose makes in this comparison of Annie Leibovitz photos. The one with Cindy Crawford on the left has a modest pose, while the one with Lady Gaga on the right has an erotic pose. There’s a story in each image, just like the Crewdson photos, but the one on the right is considered erotic because it’s meant to arouse us…even though it’s actually showing less of each breast.
So yes, pose is huge! And if we’re wanting to control the way our art is perceived, we need to be aware of it.
Here’s a great example of a modest pose. The statue “Capitoline Venus” shows Venus coming out of the bath and covering herself. Modest poses don’t have to be this unrevealing, as long as there’s not a portrayal of flaunting.
Here are some more modest poses by Irving Penn.
Now that we know the pose has a lot to do with the way the image is perceived, let’s view some more. This comparison of David Bellemere’s images should be obvious. The pose on the left is modest, while the one on the right is more erotic. Both are lit well and have their own finishing approach (see Day 122 ), so we can see how the overall mood of the image doesn’t change the perception as much as the pose does.
Again, we see David Bellemere with a modest pose on the left and a more seductive pose on the right.
Here’s another great set of images by Alfred Cheney Johnston. Notice how the pose on the left is modest, while the one on the right is perceivably more erotic. Still not sure how to determine which one is more erotic? Are both acceptable in your eyes? Well, try the cubicle test. Which one would be worse to hang up in your workplace environment, or have a screensaver on your computer? The one on the left is covering most of the body parts and has that “shy” feeling, while the one on the right is more exposed and has a “come get me big boy” feeling.
The context of the image can play a role in the way people perceive the nude art as well. Take this comparison of photos by Annie Leibovitz. Both can be considered modest poses, but the one on the right might be perceived as erotic because she is laying on a bed. So, if there is a bed in the scene it might suggest or arouse sexual desires.
Here’s another example with paintings by Paul Gauguin where we have modest poses, but the full bed on the right might be a little suggestive.
In this Alexandre Cabanel comparison, we have a bed on the left, but her pose is not revealing and the women characters in the scene tell us that it’s just a bunch of girlfriends hanging out. The painting on the right, though, has Venus sprawled out in an erotic manner.
Here’s a nice comparison with Thomas Kennington paintings, where both poses are modest, but the context is different. On the left, we have something more innocent in nature, while on the right we have a nude female sitting on fur which is more sexually suggestive. Other props or garments like lace or fishnet stockings might also overpower a modest pose and push it to the erotic side.
In this Picasso comparison, we see that the female on the left is exposed more than a typical modest pose, but the context is innocent. She’s just fixing her hair in the mirror with her friend. Much like the Cabanel, the context helps the way we perceive the nude. The poses in the painting on the right is more erotic…even though it just looks like some girlfriends hanging out by the ocean.
I looked back at some of my nude photos after writing this article and realized that I was capturing modest poses for the most part, but I did recently capture a pose that could be perceived as being erotic.
In the image on the left she is covering up and is in nature, but on the right she is exposed and thrusting her head back. She’s in nature a
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