Michael Rosen, 2012 Master of Erotic Art
Every year, our Art Activist Society members vote for candidates whom we consider to be Masters of Erotic Art. This privilege is one that allows us to acknowledge and respect the top tier of erotic thought leaders. We look to these nominated individuals to help us maintain a strong grasp on the definition of the Erotic, and its manifestation in all forms of art.
The 2014 Masters are being voted upon this week by our Society members, and we will reveal them after all the votes have been tallied. Let’s take this time to reflect back on those who have influenced our erotic art journey through 2013.
Betty Dodson
Betty has a plethora of achievements under her belt, including having a Ph.D in Sexology and being a pioneer for women’s sexual pleasure. In 1968, she gained the distinction of being the first one-woman show of erotic art at the Wickersham Gallery in New York City. She has worked diligently to have her art displayed at feminist conferences, and has lead workshops to help women examine themselves and quite literally “play with their pussies.”
On her website, subtitled “Better Orgasms, Better World,” one can peruse a long list of beliefs she and her site’s co-author, Carlin Ross, follow. Among them: “All genital imagery is protected by the First Amendment. No religion or government has the right to create shame by censoring the depiction of our sex organs which are the source of profound beauty, pleasure and life itself.”
Jim Duvall
Jim Duvall, 2011, “Modern Pin-Up” Series
Jim is the president of the Seattle Erotic Art Festival’s funding organization, the Foundation for Sex-Positive Culture, as well as co-founder of JanesGuide.com, a hand-chosen index of all things erotic. Jim strives to use fetish and sexual imagery to spark conversations and challenge assumptions; his overarching goal is to rebrand the erotic into an accepted genre for mainstream art. Jim’s artist statement is as follows:
“When my art works, it draws you in and lets your curiosity shut off your inner voice of doubt and insecurity – that voice that stops you from feeling what you really feel or think… When my art works, you will stop stroking your beard, stop using the three-syllable words you learned in Art History 104 class, stop worrying about what your date thinks… When my art works, you will feel, think and live for a moment in your heart, purely with your heart, not necessarily even with words but with that animal part of you that is more human than the rational part of you. Some day I hope my art will work.”
Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney, “Big Fuckin’ Hands, Series 2, No. 3,” 2007
A successful artist and illustrator, Ellen has published a series of critically-acclaimed books of erotic genre cartoons. Her cartoons incorporate playfulness and love, and in the world of erotic illustration, they are a must-see. Not all of her illustrations are cartoons, however; some of her work reflects her fascination with drawing hands, which she describes as an “extremely rich subject to draw. They have so many layers of meaning. As tools, they play a role in practically everything we do, but they have so much more character and significance than that.”
She is a recipient of the Eisner Award from Comic-Con International, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of comics to art and culture.
Charles Gatewood
Charles has traveled and lived all across the globe, and in his travels has gained a unique perspective to draw from when he picks up the camera and starts shooting. As a documentary photographer, he started making waves in the 1960s & 70s by documenting the American sexual awakening and growth of mainstream diversity. His first photobook, SIDESTRIPPING, was dedicated to bringing gay culture to the forefront of his work. Of SIDESTRIPPING, New York Times critic A.D. Coleman wrote, “Gatewood’s world is freakish, earthy, blunt, erotic—most of all terribly and beautifully alive.”
For the last four decades, Charles has folllowed and documented all types of US subcultures. He has continued to have an eye for bringing the new erotic views of humanity to the forefront of his photography, moving through genres from gay culture in the 60s & 70s, to depictions of all types of human body in the early 90s, and then onto the alternative world of piercings, tattoos, and other body modifications. Throughout time, his perspective has remained the same – viewing his fellow Homo sapiens through the lens of his training and education as an anthropologist.
Barbara Nitke
Barbara Nitke is a photographer who developed a compassionate view of alternative sex through the lens of the adult film industry. Her images challenge popular views of pornography, and reveal the humanity in an industry where it is all too easy to dehumanize. Outside of her art, she has challenged obscenity laws all way to Supreme Court.
Nitke shot publicity stills in the 80’s, towards the end of the “Golden Age of Porn”, as well as stills depicting behind-the-scenes moments in the industry. In the 1990’s, however, her focus was shifted (at first externally) towards fetish. “There was a small New York company that had banged out cheap kinky movies for years, and suddenly they were swamped with orders. They began to upgrade their shoots and hired me for their photography. The fetish scenes spoke to me in an entirely different way from the slam-bam hardcore scenes. In them I saw echoes of emotional trauma, childhood demons, power plays.”
“Everyone I’ve photographed throughout these years has taught me something new – about the nature of the erotic impulse, about sexual desire, about spirituality, about humanity. They have taught me that no matter how we’re wired to express love, freedom is having the courage to be who we really are.”
Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen’s work, exhibited in SEAF 2011
Michael Rosen is considered the progenitor of the Sexual Art genre, in fact having coined the term “sexual art”. He has been photographing all manner of sexual expression since 1977, and has released several books containing his work.
“My photos have encompassed a wide range of styles: stark and grainy nude landscapes; impressionistic, gritty, cinema verité images of S/M sex scenes; sharply focused, elegantly composed, studio sexual portraits involving S/M, erotic piercings, gender play and what I call non-standard penetration. The latest work comprises soft and romantic images of explicit sex that challenge the concept of pornography.”
David Steinberg
David Steinberg began his career as a political and social activist. “It was within this context of working for radical social change that I first came to question and reject sexual conventions like monogamy and heterosexuality, concepts that seemed as blatantly wrongheaded as insisting that women limit themselves to being dedicated wives and mothers, and men to being emotionless breadwinners. Looking deeper into issues of sexual fear and repression, I came to understand American antisexualism as a major vehicle of social control, and a root of personal unhappiness and confusion that was expressed politically through issues ranging from abortion to male supremacy, from campaigns against pornography to suppression of prostitution.”
Steinberg works to capture honest, real moments from people. He takes his time to get to know his subjects and create a space where they can relax and be their authentic sexual selves. He also strives to capture the diversity in human sexuality, celebrating a broad range of people and bodies. “I’m committed to photographing as broad a range of people as possible, to challenge the common notion that sex and sexual desirability are reserved for the young, thin, glamorous people we see in advertising, in film, and on television. I’ve photographed people ranging in age from 19 to 73, heavy people as well as thin, disabled as well as abled. I’m interested in all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and sexual inclinations, and am always looking for interesting new people as subjects.”