Word: erotica
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...National Gallery's show, directed by a trio of experts (Konrad Oberhuber, Jay Levenson and Jacquelyn Sheehan), brings together some 200 examples, ranging from masterpieces like Andrea Mantegna's Entombment of Christ to a cheery bit of erotica (involving a girl who bears a startling resemblance to Alice in Wonderland) by an anonymous North Italian artist of the late 15th century. This is the kind of thing major museums ought to be about, when they are not distracted by show biz and self-puffery. One sees the print discovering its own nature and destiny as copper engraving changed...
...argument. The depiction of violence, especially in verse and on stage, is an integral part of much great art from Homer to the present. Explicit sex, while depicted by many great writers, has not been comparably important, at least to the art of the West. This lack of important erotica, liberals would reply, was due to the taboos of most western countries until recently. My reaction would be that, for reasons too lengthy to explore here, those taboos were right and contributed to the cohesion of society...
...students of the once exquisite Japanese art of pornography, Nakata's stuff was a poor substitute for the celebrated Ukiyo-e erotica of the era before the first Westerners arrived more than a century ago. In the 1700s and early 1800s, when the great samurai families ruled the peaceful, isolated island nation, Japanese artists celebrated sex in extraordinarily direct and sensual prints and woodcuts. Every well-bred virgin was given at least one graphically instructive makura-e (pillow picture) as part of her trousseau. "There was no hypocrisy," says Ukiyo-e Scholar Teruji Yoshida. "These artists dealt with...
...into a pattern?interminable night sessions, sleep, afternoons of caucuses. Although Miami Beach is designed for leisure and indolence, it was put to remarkably industrious use. Some delegates plunged into swimming pools and the Fontaine-bleau's Boom Boom Room, some took in the Eden Roc's "Love Machine" erotica or listened to Pearl Williams, a road-company Sophie Tucker, at the Place Pigalle. But mostly they talked earnestly among themselves, taking endless notes. They seemed to treat Miami Beach as a curious rococo phenomenon, something beside the point...
...wonder. Host Bill Ballance and his 400,000 daily listeners regularly get an earful of erotica that would have titillated Freud and Krafft-Ebing. One woman confessed that she let her husband think that he was hypnotizing her during the sexual act. Another said that she solved her daughter's marital problems by going to bed with her son-in-law. "That's a melter, Vicki," cooed Ballance. "I think that's neat." Not quite neat enough, however. Next day the daughter called in enraged. "Oh-oh," Ballance said. "And did your dad hear...