Sam Winston "Birth-day"

"Now what´s this" you might think? Erotic? How?

Well, I want to show this picture to illustrate that erotic art is not necessarily directly concerned with showing genitalia and sexy poses. Good art carries a lot of thought behind it and is usually based on an underlying issue, theme, problem etc. which acts as the foundation of the work.

Birthday is created by London based artist Sam Winston and is a mark of the 100,000 new babies born over a period of 12 hours on the planet. The work consists of 100,000 circles. What a feat!

The work was never intended as a piece erotic art but that is what is so great about art. Sometimes people perceive something different than what the artist had in mind at the outset.

When I wrote to Sam and said that I loved his work because the piece also can be seen to document the results of numerous erotic encounters, he responded: "when I showed Birth day to a friend she said - think how many people are having sex right now ! I guess she has a point." So obviously I am not the only one, but this is hardly surprising considering how close sex and birth are to each other.

Birthday is a beautiful pulsating image - you can almost feel all the babies that have come alive over the past 12 hours. The image has a very organic quality, there's a liquid motion resembling a certain fertilising fluid intertwined with the circular shape resembling the ovum.

This is what Sam says about his work:
"Birth-day charts the 100,000 lives that come into being over the period of 12 hours on the planet. I drew a circle for every life born in a waking day.

"I find it interesting that we use numbers to quantify things yet once we pass a certain amount, scale slips away and it becomes incomprehensible. I wanted to understand what a 100,000 physically was – and for me that entailed marking out that number in pen. I soon realised the enormity of such a task – I hoped to keep up with 100,000 births over 12 hour ratio but within the first ten minutes I knew it was useless. As two children are born every second the hand cannot mark the event. In total it took over a month to chart one day of births.

"On completion I also realised I wanted to create the works opposite number – the amount of deaths within 12 hours. These are to be black circles on white – and there will be 70,000 of them. "

All three images are Copyright of Sam Winston and reproduced with kind permission by Sam Winston.

For more on Sam Winston´s other work visit samwinston.com

Robert Mapplethorpe

This post is about two works by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). This famous photographer cause a great deal of controversy in his day - in particular for photographing black men and producing sexually explicit work. Some feel that he took advantage and exploited the black men he photographed. If you want to hear what Ken Moody, one of Mapplethorpe´s models, feels about being photographed by Mapplethorpe, click this You Tube link.

The two Mapplethorpe images that I have chosen to show are interesting for several reasons. First of all it is debatable whether or not they can be called erotic.

So why do I have them on the blog?

Well, one of my main points about erotic art is that an image can be seen by one person as erotic and not at all erotic by someone else. Attitudes and perceptions of what is erotic and what is not, is in perpetual flux and change with time, social and cultural evolution that follow the changing times. What is erotic and unacceptable today may be acceptable tomorrow.

In centuries past the depiction of a naked body or person in a sculptural context could be seen as risqué. Today though, sculpture of this kind is usually seen as aesthetically pleasing.

Ken Moody, 1983. Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe foundation.
Used by permission.

Mapplethorpe´s image of Ken Moody is interesting because it is so steeped in classical values linked to the sculptural tradition - the view of the back with what looks like the arms missing is a strong visual reference to many of the classic white marble sculptures omnipresent in our museums. But the reason that I think this image is really interesting, is because although we know it is a male we are looking at, there is distinct feminine grace about him in his posture despite his undeniably masculine body. Finally I think it is an interesting contrast that Mapplethorpe highlights with this image: the body of a living Afro-American man making me think of white marble statues; dark/light, human/stone, male/female. And to top it all off - I do actually think he is sexy. What woman would not want to get her hands on Moody´s buttocks?

Thomas, 1987. Copyright Robert Mapplethorpe foundation.
Used by permission.

This fantastic image draws on the tradition of Michelangelo and passes reference to his Vitruvian man. Aside from that it is simply a stunning image and one which I think shows why the masculine body is just as attractive as the female body. This image just makes you long to see what this man looks like standing upright ... and you can go on daydreaming ...

Another image of Thomas, even more erotic, is the one called Thomas in a circle, 1987. In this image there is a strong symbolism playing on the union between the male and the female. Here Thomas is shown inside the round circle (which also looks like a tube) looking down at a white luminous shape with strong links to an ovum, (the female egg). This is a highly erotic image which plays on heterosexual relations which is interesting when you consider that Mapplethorpe was gay.


To learn more about Robert Mapplethorpe and his work you can visit the Mapplethorpe website.

Beautiful in pregnancy

Today I fell over this picture on the web and thought it was so beautiful and erotic I just had to show it to you.


As a woman I know, from first hand experience, how easy it is to feel unsexy when your body is big through pregnancy. Many women have a heightened sense of sexual desire and more erotically aware at times through their pregnancy whilst others loose the interest in sex altogether.

The composition of the picture is fantastic and the beautiful curves of the body are eminently displayed through an almost chiaroscuro-like effect, where contrast of light and shade is used to create a heightened sense of volume.

Although you cannot see the woman´s face I think you get a strong sense of the erogenous and thoughts inevitably link to the act in which she has had to participate to get to her present pregnant state. The interpretation of the picture could be that this woman is a symbol of mother earth or a fertility goddess and as such something linked with beauty, attraction, fertility and growth.

I hope this picture makes all women who are pregnant feel wonderfully special, beautiful and sexy because it is exactly that sense of the erogenous that has gotten most of them into their situation.

Eroticism and aging

A short while ago, someone said to me that she was fed up with just seeing erotic art that features young beautiful models. After seeing a documentary on Hollywood wifes who all looked gorgeous in their 40´s and 50´s, due to nips and tucks, she felt the urge to see some real-life normal women who look and feel comfortable with their age. She mentioned how youth and beauty is worshiped even within the world of erotica.
It is easy to agree with her especially perhaps in the world of erotic art where the visual appeal rules the aesthetics. However, the ideal of beauty linking youth, slenderness and good looks does not have to be or indeed is not always the case.

I think the fabulous portrait, by Hans van der Kamp titled "My Favorite Model", speaks volumes of beauty and the continued erotic appeal that can be found in an aging woman.

"My Favorite Model".

Copyright by Photographer Hans van der Kamp.