erotic

Flaccid Prices at Phillips de Pury's Sexy Art Auction

Art auction house Phillips de Pury has learned that sex sells. Pushing erotic-themed contemporary works, the house brought in $2.1 million at a London sale on Saturday night at a sale called simply "SEX." Of the 271 lots that went under the gavel, including art, design and photography, 69 percent sold. Unfortunately, the auction's revenue only hit 78 percent of the presale estimate: competition wasn't exactly stiff for the hottest works on the block.

The highlight of the evening was a painting by UK pop artist Allen Jones. His 1966 "Soft Tread" featured a pair of legs in stockings and adorned with stiletto heels. The sultry effort aroused at least six bids and enough action to thrust the selling price to 361,250 pounds. With a presale estimate of 60,000 pounds to 80,000 pounds, the action surely justified the art world's equivalent to a post-coital cigarette.

Apparently the erotic and sex-themed art market is hardening ... and it's turning on billionaires. A piece by Otto Mueller featuring two nude female bathers fetched 2.1 million pounds at Christie's last month, three times the high estimate.

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Tags: art auction, art auctions, art market, billionaire, billionaires, erotic, london, phillips de pury, sex, sexy

Erotic Classic Japanese Art In One Book By Phaidon Press

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Books

This interesting publication is certainly not safe for the family room. Dating back literally hundreds of years, Japan (among other cultures actually) has a history for high quality erotic art. Much of it was produced during the ukiyo-e period that ranged from the 17th - 19th century. The art has a feeling just as you would expect from traditional Japanese art, and much of the work was done by some of their major famous historic artists - such as Hokusai, Utamaro, and Kuniyoshi. Those instead of a large wave, fishing boat, or calm mountain scene, these paintings are are taboo defying images of sexuality and hidden passions from a culture that mostly repressed such thoughts from being publicly discussed. The images here are "safe for all eyes," but not that the majority of these works are for adults only. This is old-world Japan hentai - a sexually charged art style popular in Japan today.

This classic art (known as Shunga, or "spring images") and stories from this era were contained in "pillow books." Pillow books had a variety of purposes similar to what we would use such imagery today - to inform, entertain, and of course arouse. The difference is the quality of the work being on par with the era's finest paintings and other master works. Shunga works were mostly originally done on wood, and are great collector's item all over the world. In the upcoming publication Poem of the Pillow and Other Great Stories: Erotic Japanese Art by Utamaro, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi and other artists of the Floating World, by Phaidon Press, much of this famous art is collected in one source. The book will have 350 full color images done in Phaidon's typical high quality style. The 384 page, beautifully presented book will be available soon and comes with a large erotic scene image by Utamaro that can be framed. Price is just $49.95 and available in June.

Gallery: Erotic Classic Japanese Art In One Book By Phaidon Press