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Modern bacchantes - mothers, wives and lovers… or does the female erotic art exist?
The answer lies in the establishment of such an exposition. However the very question remains and it questions the existence of the difference between female and not female erotic art. Is the existence of a notion of the eroticism enough, or do we still need the notion that differentiate? Female figurative erotic art should, first of all, depict male sex, or concentrate on the very image of 'act of love' to be symmetrical to trivial and the most simple ground of male erotic art. The natural question arises - is there anything hidden, specifically female in created by a woman 'act of love'?
Why does a woman keep depicting herself and not the eventual object of sexual attraction (in the heterosexual sense)?
Representatives of a feminist tradition would give a simple answer - a woman, through self representation confirms to herself and other women her dominant role or, at least she fights against the situations of suppression.
Formally, from the phenomenological way of interpretation, created by a woman female act looks the same as the one created by a man. Iconographic span of plots spreads from the theme of seduction to the theme of realization.
Under the circumstances we stay within the frame of classic discourse that differentiates the search of beauty (harmony) from the search of the way to convey inner states connected to our nature.
According to romantic tradition, the viewer, as well as the artist is interested in that point where, naturally, the creativity should represent a visual fixation of the wild, non cultural, vital, dark part of a human nature… and erotic art is the best from this point of view, isn't it?
As far as I am concerned, this statement is not quite correct. The proof lies in the fact that erotic art depends on the concept, past and convention. The theme of eroticism in art is ordered by its own rules. We impose what we know and how we know it. We stay within visual discourse, which is why we depend on images. The images that are used by female artists and the images that limit them. All this looks like being closed in a cage of old-fashioned schemes: a man acts whereas a woman shows herself.
Imagery, that if followed by interpretation, is revealed and invites us to take a dive into it. We have Venus of pure love and state love, we also have Eve and Leda, Betrayer Aurora and Beatrice, bacchantes and nymphs, among which we can observe Adam, fallen angels - so just men and women and Eros, a god whose sex features are not fully determined, is flying above all of them - ideal theme to show our dark side from our brightest side.
And what about women? Women-artists, as well as all the other artists, are balancing between eros and pornos, between the declarations and realizations, they fight tradition to make sure it will go on.
Anna Kostyrko
Art historian
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