Review of Art: A Sex Book
Salon review of Art: A Sex Book (premium subscribers only) by John Waters and Bruce Hainley. "The kind of contemporary artworks that usually lead unseasoned viewers to simply scratch their heads and dismiss the whole arena of hoity-toity galleries are sprayed with an alluring conceptual scent of musk. The authors give a new and often sexy spin to images that don't initially scream with sensuality, and they offer more serious consideration to images with uncloaked porno roots." From the book's introduction:
JW: Contemporary art is sex. The artists, the cute kids working in the galleries, the paperwork from the galleries, the crating and shipping, all the young 'hangers on' crashing the openings -- it's all about sex.
BH: Sex is a prime motivator for making contemporary work, even when the art doesn't seem to have anything to do with sex or nudity. Making art -- especially if it's interesting art -- is a sexy occupation.
Sounds about right. Also reviewed at artnet by Ana Finel Honigman.
The most tantalizing aspect of this brilliant book, aside from its bevy of erections and ribald humor, is Waters' and Hainley's ability to intellectually engage overtly sexual art while simultaneously articulating how chaste-seeming images can be as beguiling as their libertine counterparts. Anyone in the art-world can shamelessly claim that they love John Currin for his "Old Master technique," but perhaps only Waters could convincingly explain why Tom Friedman's 1,000 Hours of Staring (1992-97), a blank sheet of paper Friedman claims to have watched for 1,000 hours, is sexy.
More and more. (Thanks, Susannah.)
