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Is high art erotica? | posted by MD To pick up on Dan's thread...
 In a 1994 interview with The Observer, Camille Paglia said:My point in Sexual Personae is that one cannot make any kind of firm line between high art and pornography. In fact, porm permeates the high art tradition. Even Michelangelo's Pieta, the supreme artifact of the Vatican, is a work of pornography — when you look at it up close.Which you can if you click the image and slowly examine. Interestingly, in the sculpture, Mary is functioning as a chair or throne, evoking a Great Mother archetype, a point raised in this Woodshed post by Jean and subsequent comments. [Note: Elsewhere, Paglia said "We have to understand that the Pieta with the nude Christ -- that's pornography. Michelangelo is slobbering over that body. If you can understand the sacredness of the Pieta and simultaneously understand its pornographic elements, then we're very far along the road here, okay?"] Guidelines for Comments & Questions Comments and questions signed "anonymous" are strongly discouraged; please provide a URL to your blog or website, and at least a name so we can refer to you in subsequent discussion. All comments and questions should be related to the topic or topics raised in this podcast or blog entry. Personal insults of any kind are not permitted and posts containing insults will be deleted. By Jean | 7/10/2006 One's art had better be erotic or sexual if it's going to have any power to it at all. (This was something I considered writing about for the magazine by the way -putting the "fuck" in one's work, so to speak.) By this I obviously don't mean it has sexually explicit images, although it might. What we are talking about are elements of rhythm, curve, the tensions of motion vs. stillness, and so on - basically the things that leave a viewer or listener or audience member feeling like the proverbial earth moved, even when they don't exactly know why. (I'd say another reason why classic porn, if we want to call it art or not, typically isn't very good art at best.) But Michaelangelo moving a scalpel through marble is fundamentally a sexual act, and I don't think there's any doubt that for some of us, to be in the presence of great art is to experience some of the best fucks of our lives. By Jay Andrew Allen | 7/10/2006 "Putting the 'fuck' in one's work". I love that. Susie Bright makes similar points in her work, arguing that "erotica" is just pornography for the flared-pinkie crowd. The point is taken. Still, there's a valid continuum between erotica and pornography that these hipper-than-thou flatland dissertations seek to erase. "Putting the 'fuck' in your art" when your subject is the Virgin Mary is quite different than filming a four-way. By MD | 7/10/2006 Allow me a small correction to my post. Silly me, I thought the terms "erotica" and "pornography" were essentially interchangeable. It is apparent that they aren't, so I plead ignorance. I meant them as essentially the same, much like "electronica" is essentially "synthesized dance music". And for what it's worth, I rather like the "-ica" suffix, from a philogical point of view. By | 7/11/2006 Hmm, I guess I haven't been properly infused with all kinds of important thoughts on this matter. Nevertrheless I cannot discover anything pornographic about the pieta which I've had the great luck to look at personally. I am struck by the beauty and the young face of Mary who really doesn't look like the young man's mother. Don't know if that qualifies as pornographic or even erotic, though. Love, Mushin By MD | 7/11/2006 I have seen this in person, as well. Just striking. To your point, the Paglia line of thinking suggests Michelangelo "slobbered" over the depiction of Jesus Christ. The food for thought may lie there, in whether the body of Christ arouses sexual excitement (also considering the time and place of the statue's introduction in Rome). Also, I must say, I feel disconcerted wondering what might be in Mary's sight-line. Thanks for the comment. md By | 7/12/2006 This post has been removed by a blog administrator. By MD | 7/13/2006 Note: Comments in this thread are alive and well and continue here.
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