WORLD OF ART EIGHTH EDITION CHAPTER 23 Love and Sex World of Art, Eighth Edition Henry M Sayre Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc or its affiliates All rights reserved Learning Objectives Describe how the tension between physical and spiritual love manifests itself in different cultures Explain some of the different ways in which desire has been imaged Discuss the kiss as an image of desire Introduction • Sculptor Auguste Rodin had been haunted by Dante's Divine Comedy, and by the Inferno in particular • In The Kiss (Le Baiser), Rodin transforms the couple into every man and every woman—love personified • There is no more enduring theme in art than the coupling of love and sex Auguste Rodin, The Kiss (Le Baiser) 1888–89 Marble, 5' 11-1/2" × 44-1/4" × 46" Musée Rodin, Paris Inv S.1002 © Vanni Archive/Art Resource, New York [Fig 23-1] Physical and Spiritual Love • The Greek philosopher Plato argued that sex should be permitted only for purposes of procreation • Various forms of this attitude have survived in Western culture today • In other cultures, sex and physical passion are something to be celebrated Sexuality in the Hindu World of • One of the most important figures in the Hindu pantheon of gods is Shiva, the destroyer • One of the most popular representations of him shows him seated with his wife, Uma Shiva Seated with Uma (Uma-Maheshvara) 11th century Copper alloy, height 11-1/8" Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1987.218.1 © 2015 Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Sexuality in the Hindu World of • A wall of even more erotic sculptures rises alongside the garbhagriha at Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in Khajuraho • These sculptures probably represent the idea of kama—meaning "desire" or "longing." • Sex, in this tradition, is a process of enjoyment Erotic couples on wall of Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, India ca 1000 CE Height of sculptures approx 39" © Fotofeeling/Westend61/Corbis [Fig 23-3] Eros and the Idea of Love in Ancient Greece of • For the ancient Greeks, the idea of eros embodies the same conjoining of physical and spiritual love that the Hindus represented with Shiva and Uma • They believe love is ennobling; the loved one becomes virtuous by being loved Fulani (Wodaabe) women at a gerewol, southern Niger 1980s © Robert Estall photo agency/Alamy [Fig 23-14] Kisses of • The kiss is one of the most powerfully suggestive of all types of touch • Brancusi's The Kiss is an image of two becoming one, a solid stone born of their embrace • Francis Picabia's "kiss," in the Dada painting Machine Tournez Vite (Machine Turn Quickly), is completely different as it's between two cogs Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss 1916 Limestone, 23 x 13-1⁄4 x 10 in Philadelphia Museum of Art Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950 © 2015 Photo Philadelphia Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Kisses of • In Picabia's painting, sexual encounter is reduced to a mere mechanical interaction and it devoid of emotion • Andy Warhol's Kiss is a 54-minute silent film consisting of a series of shorter films of different couples kissing, both hetero- and homosexual couples • Warhol desexualizes the event by making it go on and on Francis Picabia, Machine Tournez Vite (Machine Turn Quickly) 1916 Tempera on paper, 19-1/4 × 12-5/8" Private collection Bridgeman Images © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris [Fig 2316] Andy Warhol, Kiss 1963 Still 16 mm film, black-and-white, silent, approx 54 Museum of Modern Art, New York The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Film Preservation Program F553 Kisses of • Warhol's film is not about kissing, but about monotony, boredom, and time • Banksy's Kissing Coppers challenged macho stereotypes and humanized the very authority figures charged with enforcing laws prohibiting graffiti Banksy, Kissing Coppers ca 2005 Spray paint on wall, various sites, Brighton and London, U.K © Michael Shuttleworth/Alamy [Fig 23-18] Kisses of • Iđigo Manglano-Ovalle's Le Baiser/The Kiss is about estrangement • The piece may also be about visiting a shrine of modern architecture, and about the relationship between the window-washer and the girl inside— separated by the modernist glass wall Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Le Baiser/The Kiss 2000 Video still, video installation and projection, aluminum structure, dimensions variable Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Schulte [Fig 23-19] The Critical Process Thinking about Love and Sex of • Western culture has cultivated the idea of desire most thoroughly in advertising • It is consumer culture itself that provokes advertising's sexual strategies • Barbara Kruger's work reminds us just how we are defined by how we look, what we wear, and what we buy The Critical Process Thinking about Love and Sex of • Jan Toorop's salad-oil poster shows one of the most prominent ways in which sex sells • The two women in it are engaged in a traditional female task, yet their flowing gowns and abundant hair suggest a kind of self-indulgent narcissism Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am) 1987 Photographic silkscreen/vinyl, 9' 3" × 9' 5" Courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York [Fig 23-20] Jan Toorop, Poster for Delftsche Slaolie (Delft Salad Oil) 1894 Dutch advertising poster Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence [Fig 23-21] Thinking Back Describe how the tension between physical and spiritual love manifests itself in different cultures Explain some of the different ways in which desire has been imaged Discuss the kiss as an image of desire ... × 18-1/4" Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, England Bridgeman Images [Fig 23- 8] Imaging Desire of • Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has much in common with the Delacroix... representations of him shows him seated with his wife, Uma Shiva Seated with Uma (Uma-Maheshvara) 11th century Copper alloy, height 11-1/8" Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Samuel Eilenberg Collection,... Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907 Oil on canvas 8' × 7' 8" Museum of Modern Art, New York Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence © 2015 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights