Erotic Painting and Erotic Drawing
Since the first paleolithic Venus was painted on a cave wall, artists have celebrated the erotic power of the naked body. In this section, carefully selected books chart the vast range of erotic art, from cave paintings to Picasso, both East and West, in the mediums of painting, drawing, and book illustration. These books are a feast for the eyes and the soul.
Recommended Books on Erotic Painting and Erotic Drawing
1000 Erotic Works of Genius (French Edition)
This collection offers a wide range of works from Antiquity to the 20th century. Here are the most sensual and provocative masterworks which captured the feeling of an era and often signaled the beginning of a new one. Most of these works were not immediately recognized for their genius, and others were at first met with great resistance. These Erotic Works of Genius have stood the test of time. Together they contribute to the ongoing cultural dialogue about erotic art, stimulating discussion on important questions: What makes a painting, sculpture or object erotic? How have notions of eroticism changed? To what degree does erotic art reflect reality - and to what degree does erotic art alter reality? 2008, Parkstone Press
Auguste Rodin: Erotic Sketches
This slim, beautifully-bound collection compiled by art historian Wolf features more than 30 of Rodin's nude sketches and provides a brief overview of the artist's scandalous presence within fin-de-siecle Paris. These simple but suggestive watercolor and pencil drawings, taken from the artist's later years, convey an immediacy and sensuality that belie his better-known work in monumental sculpture. Dismissed as obscene at the time of their drafting, the influence of Rodin's confident but delicate eroticism can be seen in the later works of Schiele, Picasso, and Matisse. Art enthusiasts will love this new perspective into the master sculptor's life and work. 2006, Prestel USA
Betty Dodson: Her Life of Sex and Art
This delightful video chronicles Betty Dodson's life and work as an artist, sexuality educator and orgasm coach to thousands of women. Cutting between segments of a live one-woman stage show and views of her breathtakingly erotic paintings of vulvas, we gain an understanding of this sexual pioneer who has championed solo sex and self-loving for four decades. 2008, Betty Dodson, Ph.D.
The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra
The erotic sentiments described in the Hindu love classic the Kama Sutra constitute the most famous work on sex ever created. Written almost 2,000 years ago, the Kama Sutra deals with all aspects of sexual life, including the principles and techniques of sexual pleasure and how to best achieve ecstatic expression of life's beauty. In this complete and illustrated guide Lance Dane accompanies the Kama Sutra text with 269 illustrations and great works of art gathered from museums and private collections around the world. These rare images clearly illustrate all 64 sexual positions and the erotic instructions set forth in the Kama Sutra. The result is a dazzling and sensuous reading experience through which the teachings of the Kama Sutra spring to life. 2003, Inner Traditions
The Cosmic Embrace: An Illustrated Guide to Sacred Sex
Here is a survey, through art from around the world, of the sacred dimension of sexuality. It demonstrates beyond a doubt that the notion of sexual relationships as something honorable, nonpossessive, fulfilling, and beneficial is nothing new, nor is the idea limited to the traditions of the mystic East. John Stevens shows how world sexual traditions have always had the spiritual as their highest goal. His survey looks at art from China, India, Native American traditions, ancient Europe, Japan, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Greece, Africa, and Mexico, as well as art by modern artists like Eric Gill. The book includes an extensive bibliography. 1999, Shambhala
Eastern Erotica: Chinese, Indian, and Japanese Eroticism in Art and Literature
Eastern Erotica examines the recurring topics that appear in the erotic literature and art of the East: the obligation to pleasure the woman, ways to fortify the male's virility, suggestions for variety and daring in sex, and emphasis on the power of love beyond lust. It offers a sophisticated examination of the traditional texts of the Chinese Golden Lotus, the Indian Kama Sutra, and the Japanese Shunga scrolls and extracts the lessons they teach about the sexuality of yin and yang, improving lovemaking, genital size, positions, and problems such as premature ejaculation. This new study presents the essence of the original texts in a clear and sophisticated manner with exquisite full-color illustrations. 2003, Astrolog Publishing House
Edgar Degas: Erotic Sketchbook
If Paris was the bank, boulevard, and brothel of Europe, then Degas was its most affectionate documentarian. He moved easily between the elegant sidewalks of the Champs-Elysees and the city s glamorous salons to its working class bars and seedy bordellos. As readers turn the pages of this exquisite collection they will feel as if they are looking into Degas private sketchbook. The sketches in this book possess the quality of immediacy and simplicity that mark his best work, including drawings of women bathing and dressing or posing as studies for his finished portraits. 2008, Prestel USA
Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies
Erotic by Nature is a collection of visual and written erotica of unprecedented artistic quality and imagination, a celebration of the potential sex holds for deep joy, wonder, intimacy, and self-awareness. Directed to women and men of all ages and life styles, Erotic by Nature demonstrates that quality erotic photography, writing, and art can be intensely passionate and provocative without being pornographic. It is an affirmation of the importance, complexity, and subtlety of sexual feeling, a new genre of erotic imagery and writing that invites us to move beyond both pornography and sexual prohibition to welcome and explore the best of our erotic selves. 1988, Red Alder Books
Erotic Fantasy Art is a unique showcase of the very best of today's erotic art. Drawing on a wide variety of work by traditional and digital painters and illustrators from all over the world, it is a stunning sourcebook of ideas and inspiration guaranteed to stimulate the imagination and the senses in one lush full-color volume. 2008, Collins Design
Erotica Universalis I: From Pompeii to Picasso
2001, Taschen
Erotica Universalis II
2000, Taschen
Erotica Universalis I and Erotica Universalis II offer a visual survey of centuries of erotic illustration. Each volume is a museum of sexually explicit images as conceived by some of the best known and otherwise unknown artists and illustrators. Erotica Universalis I begins with ancient Greek and Roman art, but is mostly devoted to painting and drawing of the last few centuries. There are about 750 images. Each illustration is given a full page and is accompanied by explanatory text. Erotica Universalis II documents the rich history of erotic art created as book illustration. Tucked away in every important national library and countless private libraries are the restricted or banned books to which the public has limited access. Gilles Neret has assembled a remarkable collection of works created by Rembrandt, Boucher, Fragonard, Dali, Picasso, Matisse and many other lesser-known but prodigiously talented artists exploring the arousing variety of human sexual expression.
From the surreal eroticism of Salvador Dali to the kitsch eroticism of Jeff Koons, erotic art has always inflamed opinion and, even today, such images are considered provocative, dangerous, and unwelcome in the public sphere. Alyce Mahon takes us on an imaginative and engaging tour of erotic art in all its forms, including painting, sculpture, video art, installation, performance art, and photography. Mahon explores eroticism from its most romantic to its most explicit: from Impressionist Paris where the naked body signaled the rise of a new, modern world, to the contemporary scene where artists use eroticism to address the politics of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Indeed, Mahon provides a concise history of art in the twentieth century through the lens of eroticism, offering original insights into works of art that do not sit easily within popular notions of taste and that have provoked controversy and calls for censorship. 2007, Oxford University Press
Gardens of Pleasure: Eroticism and Art in China
This stunning collection of more than 100 color illustrations from the Bertholet Collection is a magnificent achievement: never before has the world been able to view most of these breathtaking visions of love and sex from pre-modern China. In addition, the book contains verses that match the age and mood of each work of art, as well as essays on the history of the art form, the effect of Taoism on erotica, Confucianism, and much more. 2004, Prestel Publishing
The Illustrated Koka Shastra: Medieval Indian Writings on Love Based on the Kama Sutra
The Illustrated Koka Shastra explores all matters sexual, from setting the mood to explicit instruction on technique. In this edition, Comfort's translation is supplemented with explanatory notes and commentary. Explicit images drawn from a collection of ancient Indian paintings and sculptures - many never before published - complement and augment the classic text. This celebration of sex and sexuality is an invitation to explore a state of mind that accepts physical intimacy as a positive good and its elaboration as a natural part of life. 1997, Simon & Schuster
Japanese Erotic Fantasies: Sexual Imagery of the Edo Period
This is the first comprehensive study on Japanese erotic print art (known as shunga). It illustrates a wide selection of the best works from mainly private collections in Europe and the USA. The publication shows highlights from the oeuvre of Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Suzuki Harunobu, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi and many others. The book outlines the artistic developments from the early period to the end of the 19th century when Western themes began to appear in Japanese erotic art. Various essays by international experts describe this fascinating genre, placing it in its social, historical and artistic contexts, and discussing themes such as homosexuality, voyeurism, life in Edo's brothels, and techniques of composition. 2005, Hotei Publishing
The Kama Sutra Illuminated: Erotic Art of India
The Kama Sutra, a 3rd-century Sanskrit text by the Hindu sage Vatsyayana, set forth the principles of sensual pleasure with poetry, wisdom, and humor, celebrating love as an ecstatic expression of life's beauty. The most famous text on sex ever written, it has inspired artists over the centuries to create images depicting its explicit instructions for correct and incorrect sexual behavior during courtship and marriage. There are many Kama Sutras in print, but this lavishly produced, oversized volume is the first illustrated version that presents great works of art inspired by this classic text. Long treasured as an uninhibited exaltation of erotic and mystical bliss, the Kama Sutra, as illuminated here, is a sublime gift for lovers-and lovers of beautiful art. 2002, Harry N. Abrams
Picasso: Art Can Only Be Erotic
Picasso's granddaughter introduces readers to a sublime selection of the artist's erotic masterpieces, brought together in this lush and elegant volume. Pablo Picasso lived life as he painted it -- with sensual energy and abandon. Nearly every woman whom he loved has been immortalized in his work, from the playful nudes of his early years to the classical representations of the twenties and the more frankly sexual paintings that crowned his career. With mesmerizing color and an appealing design, this chronologically arranged volume follows Picasso's artistic development as expressed in more than ninety erotically charged works. Exquisitely reproduced paintings and etchings such as Salomé Dancing Nude in Front of Herod, Demoiselles d'Avignon, and the famous Pisseuse are displayed alongside fragments from Picasso's love letters and his revealing observations about the role of sensuality in his life. Diana Widmaier Picasso comments on her grandfather's amorous adventures, offering intimate revelations and insights that transform this beautiful book into a personal reflection of one man's consuming passion. 2005, Prestel Publishing
At the age of eight Picasso's drawings already displayed a precocious interest in the female form, and in the days leading up to his death he was still working obsessively on sketches of the female sex. These works mix desire, and fascination, but also comedy and the grotesque. The works in this book include erotic drawings formal and informal, sketches in notebooks hidden in drawers and private collections, and occasionally paintings and sculptures. Included are essays by an international team of scholars that analyze the primeval notion of desire in Picasso's work, as well as his relation to voyeurism and exhibitionism, and the roles of the artist and model. Whether through playful or hallucinatory forms, Picasso's representation of the desiring and desired body has become a pivotal moment in the history of 20th-century art. 2001, Prestel Publishing
Sexuality in Western Art begins in the Paleolithic period when "art is fused with the erotic and sacred." The book covers art from the so-called "prehistoric Venuses," cave paintings and carvings and takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the whole of Western art. Throughout much of the history of Western art the nude had to be wrapped in the invisible cloak of respectability by recreating the scenes of classical art and mythological subjects as vehicles for sexual portrayals. Respectability was also achieved by illustrating the evils of the world, such as slave markets, rapes and harem life so that the nudity and sexual symbolism was seen to have a higher moral purpose. 1991, Thames & Hudson, Revised Edition
Shunga: The Erotic Art of Japan
Shunga, or "images of spring," are erotic polychrome engravings painted by the masters of the Japanese Ukiyo-e school during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The shunga served as illustrations for love novels, instructive albums for young wives, and even lucky charms for warriors. This book is the first to present a special collection of rare, previously unpublished prints, enriched by texts that introduce the various periods and defining characteristics of the genre. Unabashed and exquisitely rendered, these images are a surprisingly accessible visual chronicle of erotic fine art. 1998, Universe Publishing
Conquer your senses by leaving nothing unexperienced! Tantra embraces sexual energy as the path to spiritual wisdom, with each partner worshipping the divine in the other. For more than a thousand years, India has produced a wealth of erotic literature and art, including the best known of them all, the Kama Sutra. Drawing on a range of works, including some unavailable in English, Sinha brings together a rare collection of material from the classical, medieval, and modern period. Lavish illustrations of statues, paintings, ivory combs and silk hangings, and other examples of the most beautiful arts appear, many of which had until now been reserved for ritual purposes. 2000, Hamlyn
