Only the New (art)

[Florestan]

I'm with Greg (and partially with Josquin): why do I need a painting of a guy screwing a babe when I can have / watch the real thing?

Please show me paintings that evoke erotic feelings without any explicit sexual depiction and I'll gladly appreciate it as genius (pace Josquin). 

[Josquin des Prez]

Eroticism is the very antithesis of genius. The first is consciousness submitting to the body, while the latter is consciousness elevated to the point of transcendence. I just watched Andrei Rublev again the other day and this point is touched upon during the scene depicting the pagan orgy, and the "shameful" allure it exercised upon Rublev.

There is of course a way to "sanitize" eroticism, and that is love, that wonderful feeling one experiences when taken by a woman which is so pure that somehow makes the idea of sexual intercourse seem almost distasteful (as it was to Brahms, for instance, who couldn't reconcile the two, sex and love). I'm sure we've all experienced that. It is that feeling i see in those paintings by Edward Hopper which is why i find the suggestion of "eroticism' in his work to be quite crass.

[Florestan]

Eroticism is the very antithesis of genius.

And yet I know of no asexual genius. 

[Bulldog]

Eroticism is the very antithesis of genius. The first is consciousness submitting to the body, while the latter is consciousness elevated to the point of transcendence. I just watched Andrei Rublev again the other day and this point is touched upon during the scene depicting the pagan orgy, and the "shameful" allure it exercised upon Rublev.

There is of course a way to "sanitize" eroticism, and that is love, that wonderful feeling one experiences when taken by a woman which is so pure that somehow makes the idea of sexual intercourse seem almost distasteful (as it was to Brahms, for instance, who couldn't reconcile the two, sex and love). I'm sure we've all experienced that.

Never.

[Florestan]

There is of course a way to "sanitize" eroticism, and that is love, that wonderful feeling one experiences when taken by a woman which is so pure that somehow makes the idea of sexual intercourse seem almost distasteful (as it was to Brahms, for instance, who couldn't reconcile the two, sex and love). I'm sure we've all experienced that. It is that feeling i see in those paintings by Edward Hopper which is why i find the suggestion of "eroticism' in his work to be quite crass.

Eroticism is not the same as sexual intercourse, nor are they both the same as porn.

[greg]

There is of course a way to "sanitize" eroticism, and that is love, that wonderful feeling one experiences when taken by a woman which is so pure that somehow makes the idea of sexual intercourse seem almost distasteful (as it was to Brahms, for instance, who couldn't reconcile the two, sex and love). I'm sure we've all experienced that.

I never thought about it that way, but I actually do know what you're talking about. It is a strange thing, isn't it?

[Florestan]

I was always of the opinion that in matters of eroticism and sex the Aristotlean golden middle course is the best approach: neither lust nor asceticism. 

[JoshLilly]

This is going way back in the thread, but the stuff about Japanese caught my attention.  This is a big generalisation, but generally...              uh... anyway, in Japan, a lot of people live by extremes.  Most people in the cities especially.  They work harder, play harder, art harder (huh???).  The television is busier with colours and sounds, even the decorations on vending machines are brighter, bigger, grander.  They'll be more serious, too, work harder, can be more formal than practically anyone in the US would ever be (part of this is based on having what virtually amounts to an entire separate language for formality, 敬語, kei go).  I'm only learning Keigo so far, for instance, and can barely understand anything when I try to watch clips of Japanese TV, radio, &c.  It really is almost like two separate languages, two extremes of behaviour.

I don't care for Japanese cartoons or comic books at all, but I notice in what little I'm exposed to that they tend to be extreme too: stupidly huge explosions, and so on.  Gargantuan castles, as seen above, everything has to be more, more, more.  Watch a video or look at pictures of Akihabara sometime; the Vegas strip is seen as "loud" in the US, but just do a comparison.  Yikes.  There's no district of any city that's that deliberately extreme anywhere else in the world that I know of.  And that's possibly not even the wildest area of Tokyo.

Trivia for Fun: Tokyo is not legally or technically a city.  It's technically the Japanese equivalent of a state, and in it, a lot of towns have grown together over time.  It's also not the legal capital of Japan, as Japan technically has no permanent location set as its capital.  Its capital is legally defined - at least to my limited understanding - as the last place the Diet officially met.  So if they have a quorum assemble on the slopes of Mt. Fuji for some event, I suppose that spot of ground is technically the capital of Japan until the next time they meet somewhere else.  Granted, neither of these trivia tidbits has much real-world value, just nitpicky legalities that are kind of bizarre and little-known.

[Josquin des Prez]

I was always of the opinion that in matters of eroticism and sex the Aristotlean golden middle course is the best approach: neither lust nor asceticism. 

I don't think its really possible to do that, unless you are a woman. Males exist in a dualistic state, that is, they are either lustful, or they are not. There are no degrees between the two, its the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing. Women are always in a state in which they can be fecunded, so they are neither lustful nor unlustful. They are always sexual but never really purely lustful, if that makes sense.

[Florestan]

I don't think its really possible to do that, unless you are a woman. Males exist in a dualistic state, that is, they are either lustful, or they are not. There are no degrees between the two, its the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing.

There is a time for everything under the sun...

Women are always in a state in which they can be fecunded,

At least three days a month this is not true. 

so they are neither lustful nor unlustful. They are always sexual but never really purely lustful, if that makes sense.

Frankly, it doesn't. 

[Josquin des Prez]

Ok, think of it this way. A man is either on and off. A woman can be either be always on, or always off. The entire concept for them is meaningless because their state of being never changes. Its not secret that the two are different, i'm just trying to explain the nature of the difference.

[Florestan]

Ok, think of it this way. A man is either on and off. A woman can be either always on, or always off.

Are you married?

[Josquin des Prez]

No, but if your married experience tells you that sexuality in women works in a matter at all similar to male sexuality you are probably projecting.

[Florestan]

No, but if your married experience tells you that sexuality in women works in a matter at all similar to male sexuality you are probably projecting.

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense at all. At all!...

[DavidRoss]

I really think Josquin should have his own TV show.  He's a lot funnier than Conan O'Brian (and even writes his own material!)

[greg]

This is going way back in the thread, but the stuff about Japanese caught my attention.  This is a big generalisation, but generally...              uh... anyway, in Japan, a lot of people live by extremes.  Most people in the cities especially.  They work harder, play harder, art harder (huh???).  The television is busier with colours and sounds, even the decorations on vending machines are brighter, bigger, grander.  They'll be more serious, too, work harder, can be more formal than practically anyone in the US would ever be (part of this is based on having what virtually amounts to an entire separate language for formality, 敬語, kei go).  I'm only learning Keigo so far, for instance, and can barely understand anything when I try to watch clips of Japanese TV, radio, &c.  It really is almost like two separate languages, two extremes of behaviour.

I don't care for Japanese cartoons or comic books at all, but I notice in what little I'm exposed to that they tend to be extreme too: stupidly huge explosions, and so on.  Gargantuan castles, as seen above, everything has to be more, more, more.  Watch a video or look at pictures of Akihabara sometime; the Vegas strip is seen as "loud" in the US, but just do a comparison.  Yikes.  There's no district of any city that's that deliberately extreme anywhere else in the world that I know of.  And that's possibly not even the wildest area of Tokyo.

Trivia for Fun: Tokyo is not legally or technically a city.  It's technically the Japanese equivalent of a state, and in it, a lot of towns have grown together over time.  It's also not the legal capital of Japan, as Japan technically has no permanent location set as its capital.  Its capital is legally defined - at least to my limited understanding - as the last place the Diet officially met.  So if they have a quorum assemble on the slopes of Mt. Fuji for some event, I suppose that spot of ground is technically the capital of Japan until the next time they meet somewhere else.  Granted, neither of these trivia tidbits has much real-world value, just nitpicky legalities that are kind of bizarre and little-known.

Yeah, it is more like a state. Technically, it's a metropolis, but the fact that it's so big and has so many cities and people in it makes it more comparable to being a state.

[Philoctetes]

For the afternoon: Damali Ayo
http://damaliayo.com/
http://rent-a-negro.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/damaliayo

[Josquin des Prez]

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense at all. At all!...

Bah, forget it, its not important.

At any rate, is Philoctetes the only one who's going to post here? I'm curious to see if there are artists out there which might of be more of a taste.

[Henk]

At any rate, is Philoctetes the only one who's going to post here? I'm curious to see if there are artists out there which might of be more of a taste.

Well, I posted about Kirkham and Ceulers. You seem to ignore this or not your taste also? Did you post something by yourself actually?

Henk

[Josquin des Prez]

You seem to ignore this or not your taste also?

I'm not sure what would make you think pornographic art would be to my taste.

At any rate, i did post one artist. But my knowledge on contemporary art is extremely limited.