The Erotic: 2005 Conference Session 4b

Session 4B: Erotic, Art and Imagination
Chair: Anna McHugh

Searching for Women’s Place in Erotic Art
Young-Ae Kim
University of Paris 8, Vanves, France

Eroticism is one of the most repeated subjects in the history of Arts. However it has been treated mainly with a masculine point of view. It is indeed difficult to sympathize with these erotic expressions as a woman-spectator. Within this line, this research aims to reveal the limitations of the established concept of eroticism, more geared to masculine desire, and to open new horizons for possibilities of re-interpreting eroticism throughout the 20 th history of Arts. The term " Ferotism " is herewith composed as a contraction of the words "feminism" and "eroticism".
In the past, the initial feminist reaction in this regard was expressed with a critical parody of erotic master pieces, concentrating on woman’s physical and biological experiences such as childbirth. However, this movement is often too aggressive to be successfully separated from the perception of sexual objects and also lacks the aspect of sexual pleasure. The following tendency therefore was to reveal woman’s own sexual desire. Though, it was only depicted by demonstrating a physical exchange of female and male bodies in many cases of erotic works of art. The women spectator/audience were still far away from benefiting from the culture of appreciation towards the naked male body, eventually making it serve for homosexual appetite instead.
The pertinent expression of eroticism is sought, in fact, within the force of imagination that motivates a new creation of eroticism for example, through the touch of soft materials, abstract allusion, narrative situation, and other multiple representations, which does not necessarily have any reflect on our bodies. Based on women’s different physical experience, sensibility, social position, the significance of eroticism can expands its realm to dialogue, relationship and love. It no longer adheres to the context of power or visual excitement. In conclusion, this interpretation offers a new glance at eroticism, embracing male and female understanding in equity as well as heterosexual and homosexual differences.

Aesthetic Imagination and Sexual Experience
Christian W. Denker
University Paris-1, Paros, France

Aestheticians easily shy away from reflections on a “critique of sexuality”. The implementation of sexual values therefore is often dominated by judgments with economic, scientific, religious or psychological foundations. An aesthetic approach to sexuality could modify the common “standards of taste” - presented for example in publicity - by underlining the interdependence of aesthetic, epistemological and ethical approaches to sexuality. In this context, philosophy might learn from art and its infinite improvisations on the aesthetic presentation of highly imaginative sexuality.
Imagination can improve sexual experience in every day life. In order to understand the difference between an erotic and pornographic attitude, philosophy has certainly to take into consideration the aesthetic aspects of sexuality. There are few eternal verities in art or erotica. Styles and taste are made, not born. If the sense of personhood is not always evident at the moment of excitation and if personhood may arise as a figment of our imagination, the application of imagination might lead us to decisive changes in our sexual attitudes.
Certainly the use of imagination can’t provide us with simple recipes to solve the profound questions that sexual experience puts to us. Nevertheless it adds a facet to this important aspect of human life which can’t be easily provided by other means. Imagination can catalyze emotion within intellectual inspiration and vice versa. In consequence, it would be wrong to consider art as a domain of emotional stimulation just as it would to consider the domain of philosophy devoid of emotional content. By discovering “possible” explanations on the emotional aspects of the world, neither art nor philosophy are privileged domains of imaginative creativity. Both domains - as well as other disciplines of human interest - can provide us with emotionally exiting and frustrating encounters. One challenge for philosophical approaches on imagination is to provide us with reliable hints about why we are bored by some events while others we find irresistibly exiting.

Erotic Overtones used by the Socialist, Realist painter Gustave Courbet
Natalie Mault
School of Art and Design, Louisiana State University, United States of America

Through this paper, I wish to explore and illustrate the erotic overtones used by the socialist, realist painter Gustave Courbet.
Gustave Courbet is often described as the founder of Realism and is best known for his paintings which depicted class distinctions. This labeled him a socialist, realist painter and made him, for the most part, unpopular with art critics and labeled socially unsuitable for the Parisian public of the 19th century. The depths to which Courbet’s paintings can be considered unsuitable and controversial extend beyond his portrayal of socialist themes and are also based upon his paintings of sexual and/or erotic subjects. Although Courbet’s art often portrays his socialist convictions, his erotic paintings by far outnumber any other subjects, yet they remain unexamined in the context of eroticism. The imagery within these erotic paintings was, and continues to be, viewed as so controversial, that many of Courbet’s painting have remained hidden from public view.
Courbet painted in a way that made his images appear to be simple and straightforward, yet he allowed the spectator to recognize iconography borrowed from numerous sources, including erotic Japanese prints. "Courbet gave free rein to a fantasy of total corporeal presence that had never before been allowed to erupt so dazzlingly in art." (Fried, Michael. Courbet’s Realism. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1990.)
Elements of Courbet’s works appear to have allowed future art movements to explore eroticism, yet within Courbet’s paintings, the theme of eroticism is often overlooked by contemporary art historians. Gustave Courbet created a wide variety of painting subjects, including landscapes, portraits, socialist imagery, still lives, and nude women, all of which appear to have a common thread of erotic symbolism.
I wish to illustrate the wide range of erotic symbolism used throughout Gustave Courbet’s paintings, as well as explore the issues that forced these works to remain hidden from public view.



2nd Global Conference Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 4B: Erotic, Art and Imagination Chair: Anna McHugh Searching for Women’s Place in Erotic Art Young-Ae Kim University of Paris 8, Vanves, France Eroticism is one of the most repeated subjects in the history of Arts. However it has been treated mainly with a masculine point of view. It is indeed difficult to sympathize with these erotic expressions as a woman-spectator. Within this line, this research aims to reveal the limitations of the established concept of eroticism, more geared to masculine desire, and to open new horizons for possibilities of re-interpreting eroticism throughout the 20 th history of Arts. The term " Ferotism " is herewith composed as a contraction of the words "feminism" and "eroticism". In the past, the initial feminist reaction in this regard was expressed with a critical parody of erotic master pieces, concentrating on woman’s physical and biological experiences such as childbirth. However, this movement is often too aggressive to be successfully separated from the perception of sexual objects and also lacks the aspect of sexual pleasure. The following tendency therefore was to reveal woman’s own sexual desire. Though, it was only depicted by demonstrating a physical exchange of female and male bodies in many cases of erotic works of art. The women spectator/audience were still far away from benefiting from the culture of appreciation towards the naked male body, eventually making it serve for homosexual appetite instead. The pertinent expression of eroticism is sought, in fact, within the force of imagination that motivates a new creation of eroticism for example, through the touch of soft materials, abstract allusion, narrative situation, and other multiple representations, which does not necessarily have any reflect on our bodies. Based on women’s different physical experience, sensibility, social position, the significance of eroticism can expands its realm to dialogue, relationship and love. It no longer adheres to the context of power or visual excitement. In conclusion, this interpretation offers a new glance at eroticism, embracing male and female understanding in equity as well as heterosexual and homosexual differences. Aesthetic Imagination and Sexual Experience Christian W. Denker University Paris-1, Paros, France Aestheticians easily shy away from reflections on a “critique of sexuality”. The implementation of sexual values therefore is often dominated by judgments with economic, scientific, religious or psychological foundations. An aesthetic approach to sexuality could modify the common “standards of taste” - presented for example in publicity - by underlining the interdependence of aesthetic, epistemological and ethical approaches to sexuality. In this context, philosophy might learn from art and its infinite improvisations on the aesthetic presentation of highly imaginative sexuality. Imagination can improve sexual experience in every day life. In order to understand the difference between an erotic and pornographic attitude, philosophy has certainly to take into consideration the aesthetic aspects of sexuality. There are few eternal verities in art or erotica. Styles and taste are made, not born. If the sense of personhood is not always evident at the moment of excitation and if personhood may arise as a figment of our imagination, the application of imagination might lead us to decisive changes in our sexual attitudes. Certainly the use of imagination can’t provide us with simple recipes to solve the profound questions that sexual experience puts to us. Nevertheless it adds a facet to this important aspect of human life which can’t be easily provided by other means. Imagination can catalyze emotion within intellectual inspiration and vice versa. In consequence, it would be wrong to consider art as a domain of emotional stimulation just as it would to consider the domain of philosophy devoid of emotional content. By discovering “possible” explanations on the emotional aspects of the world, neither art nor philosophy are privileged domains of imaginative creativity. Both domains - as well as other disciplines of human interest - can provide us with emotionally exiting and frustrating encounters. One challenge for philosophical approaches on imagination is to provide us with reliable hints about why we are bored by some events while others we find irresistibly exiting. Erotic Overtones used by the Socialist, Realist painter Gustave Courbet Natalie Mault School of Art and Design, Louisiana State University, United States of America Through this paper, I wish to explore and illustrate the erotic overtones used by the socialist, realist painter Gustave Courbet. Gustave Courbet is often described as the founder of Realism and is best known for his paintings which depicted class distinctions. This labeled him a socialist, realist painter and made him, for the most part, unpopular with art critics and labeled socially unsuitable for the Parisian public of the 19th century. The depths to which Courbet’s paintings can be considered unsuitable and controversial extend beyond his portrayal of socialist themes and are also based upon his paintings of sexual and/or erotic subjects. Although Courbet’s art often portrays his socialist convictions, his erotic paintings by far outnumber any other subjects, yet they remain unexamined in the context of eroticism. The imagery within these erotic paintings was, and continues to be, viewed as so controversial, that many of Courbet’s painting have remained hidden from public view. Courbet painted in a way that made his images appear to be simple and straightforward, yet he allowed the spectator to recognize iconography borrowed from numerous sources, including erotic Japanese prints. "Courbet gave free rein to a fantasy of total corporeal presence that had never before been allowed to erupt so dazzlingly in art." (Fried, Michael. Courbet’s Realism. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1990.) Elements of Courbet’s works appear to have allowed future art movements to explore eroticism, yet within Courbet’s paintings, the theme of eroticism is often overlooked by contemporary art historians. Gustave Courbet created a wide variety of painting subjects, including landscapes, portraits, socialist imagery, still lives, and nude women, all of which appear to have a common thread of erotic symbolism. I wish to illustrate the wide range of erotic symbolism used throughout Gustave Courbet’s paintings, as well as explore the issues that forced these works to remain hidden from public view.