🟤Eighteenth-century France🟤 saw the emergence of so-called indecent paintings from the likes of Jean-Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, as well as the proliferation of erotic etchings -- the equivalent of today's pornographic photos -- that could be easily carried and hidden under one's coat. It was a turning point for eroticism in art, but the threat of censorship still loomed. Shortly thereafter, Edouard Manet sparked a scandal when he unveiled "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (1862), a painting of a picnic where a naked woman sits between two clothed men. Erotic art would go on to play an essential and inescapable role in the artistic revolution of the 20th century. Paul Gaugin started his colorful Tahitian nudes in the 1890s, and Gustav Klimt and his protégé Egon Schiele led the way in Vienna in the early 1900s. Then came the paintings of Picasso, the surrealists and Balthus; the photography of Man Ray and Mapplethorpe. Their legacy continued through the sculptures of Sarah Lucas and Paul McCarthy, Thomas Ruff's larger-than-life nudes, and perhaps most famously, Jeff Koons' "Made in Heaven" series with his former wife and muse, the porn star Cicciolina. Erotic art is truly an image without context, a naked and pure image that transgresses the norm by making the private, the intimate and the sexual public, expressing the infinite power and beauty of the subconscious. Pablo Picasso once said sexuality and art are the same thing. Perhaps he was right. #gustavklimt #klimt #artplusexplains #austrianart #austrianartist #gustavklimtart #artquotes #artquote #quoteoftheday #quotes #artistsoninstagram #artoftheday #artofinstagram #vienna (at Vienna, Austria) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEu1ZpFAqEj/?igshid=1evqqr5yzjhay
