AESTHETICS IN EROTIC PAINTING

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A Thesis

presented to

the Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design

at Notre Dame University-Louaize

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts in Design

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by

ALINE ABI FADEL

SEPTEMBER 2020
 © COPYRIGHT
By

Aline Abi Fadel

2020
All Rights Reserved

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Each of our lives is shaped by the events that we encounter. Although in 2008, I chose the

journey less travelled, that is generally in a chaotic state. It is true that “every cloud has a

silver lining”, and in my case, amidst all the chaos, there came clarity of ideas and a test to

my own will power. Thus, I was able to find the woman and artist inside me and harness

them in my paintings and my interior design work.

Each produced work has its muse in order to be manifested. Hence, inspirations to my

work came in various forms that became the main catalysts in my thesis.

I would like to start off by thanking my two amazing daughters Clara and Anna-Larina

Diba for their patience, tremendous love and understanding. They are the greatest blessing

in my life. A special thank you for my Daughter Clara Diba who proof edited my Master’s

thesis and manifested my work into a simple reality. I extend my thanks to Dr. Ghassan

Dibeh for his encouragement as well as his unconditional friendship. A special thank you

goes to Dr. Farid Younes whose teaching methodology I have adopted. He is a professor

who plays to the beat of his own drum. He pushed me to the limits of my potentials from

day one. More thanks go to Mrs. Dina Brood who supported my artwork with her positive

and motivational reviews that helped my thesis be a systematic one. Dr. Tarek Khoury for

his constant reinforcement to make my thesis a more systematic one. In addition, my

gratitude goes to Dr. Therese Abou Jaoude who guided my journey through my

unconscious mind in order for me to achieve self-awareness. A Special Thank you Mr.

Wassim Moghabghab who helped me in structuring my hypothesis. A big Thank you to

Last but not least Miss Adele Khoury who helped me through my life journey.

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In our society and in most Middle-East cultures in general, sexuality and eroticism are

considered a taboo. However, my thesis is dedicated for every being who stands up for

his/her right to be treated as an equal in every way, as well as challenge the norms

enforced on him/her by society to rise above the dominance of the patriarchal image

given to signs which is handed down from one generation to another.

You are the ones who have made it possible for us to be who we really are not who we

were supposed to be! Thank you.

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THESIS OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
a. Background 1
b. Research Focus 2
c. Overall Research Aims and Individual Research objectives 4
d. Value of this Research 6

PART ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

Chapter 1:
1. A VOYAGE IN AN EROTIC LENS 9
1.1 Introduction 9
1.2 An unveiled Paleolithic beauty 10
1.3 Sensual Egypt 12
1.4 Flawless Europe 14
1.5 Tantric India 16
1.6 Gothic Puritanism 18
1.7 Orientalism era 19
1.8 A signified modern era 20
1.9 A transcended postmodern era 23
1.9.1 The role of semiotics in aesthetic reactions 23
1.9.2 The role of subjectivity in aesthetic reactions 24
1.9.3 The role of reality in aesthetic reactions 24
1.9.4 The role of culture stimulus in aesthetic reactions 25
1.9.5 The role of ambiguity in aesthetic reactions 27
1.9.6 The role of nostalgic critiques in aesthetic reactions 28
1.9.7 The role of skepticism of Art in aesthetic reactions 29
Chapter 2:
2. INTRODUCTION TO EROTIC SYNERGIES, AND AESTHETICS IN EROTIC
ART 32
2.1 Introduction 32
2.2 Erotic synergies 33

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 2.2.1 Sexual delusions 33
2.2.2 Sexual play 33
2.3 Aesthetic pleasure in art 34
2.3.1 The Aesthetic-Arousal Methods’ Arrangements 34

2.3.2 The Aesthetic-Arousal Preference on the Patterns’ Complexity 35

2.4 Erotic art 37

2.4.1 Sexual Creativity 38

2.4.2 Stimulation 39

2.4.3 How Brains Process Erotic Images 39

2.4.4 Reflection 41

2.5 Erotic concepts used in my art production 42

PART TWO: RESEARCH METHOD, PAINTING TECHNIQUE, AND

PRACTICAL WORK. 44
Chapter 3:
3. METHOLOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 44
3.2 Research Strategy 44
3.2.1 Painting Techniques 46
3.2.1.1 First technique 46
3.2.1.2 Second technique 47
3.3 Presence of major erotic concepts in my practical work 49
3.3.1 The technical influence of Vincent Van Gogh 49
3.3.2 The theoretical implementation of Jeanette Winterson’s ideas 50
3.3.2.1 The Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body 51
3.3.2.2 The Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration 58
3.3.2.3 The Fluidity and Permeability concept of the body 65
3.3.2.4 Romantic Conventions of Boundaries 71
3.3.2.5 The Storyteller Ambiguous Gender Concept 77

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 3.4 A merge of all erotic concepts in a series of paintings called “ascending Fire” 88

4. FUTURE WORK 100

CONCLUSION 107
REFERENCES 116

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ABSTRACT

[MOTIVATION] Throughout history, art and aesthetics have been a fundamental part of

human life. Our ancestors carved their life stories in caves, and temples, whereas in our

postmodern society, individuals have become detached from art and began observing rather

than understanding its aesthetic reactions. Art reflects life occurrences, believes and

fantasies. This study will tackle the following questions: To which extent can art generate

erotic fantasies and aesthetics on canvas? Which notions and techniques in erotic abstract

painting may be used to project, and visualize aesthetics of one’s desires?

[OVERALL RESEARCH AIM] The aim of this project – research is to tackle the liaison

between erotic fantasies and aesthetics in abstract paintings. Moreover, through my art

production I will try to reflect my experience through the production of abstract paintings

that might hold erotic meaning or feelings of the artist within me.

[RESEARCH FOCUS] The focus of my research demonstrates that erotic arousal can

initiate aesthetics, in a sense of pleasantness or unpleasantness, while perceiving an erotic

artwork. The thesis shows that the aesthetics in paintings are subjective, due to the fact that

the viewer holds nostalgic unconscious suppressed emotions.

[REASERCH STATEMENT/HYPOTHESIS] My artwork is a way to portray an aesthetic

expression that aims at erotic arousal, which revolves around practical techniques and color

movements. My paintings may generate erotic and aesthetic pleasure, depending on the

unconscious nostalgic emotions of the viewer.

[VALUE OF THIS RESEARCH] The value of this research is to encourage artists to

investigate and generate aesthetic sensations which are more important than erotic elements

simply because they explore human totality. This representation expresses forms of

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nostalgic sexual fantasies, defined in terms of an intention to create a painting that provides

aesthetical valuable experience. The value of an artwork is identical to the value of the

aesthetic experienced by the viewer.

[REASEARCH METHOD] Based on literature review, a study of erotic signs and how

they affect aesthetic in erotic abstract paintings is implemented in my artwork production. I

did not inspect the viewers’ reactions to abstract art production, but I approached the erotic

art concepts from the perspective of an artist, who embodies the erotic elements with paint

on canvas, using specific painting techniques, color movements, and methods. The

application of my paintings is mainly to express, and compare my personal experience after

studying various artworks throughout the ages; for example Roman, Egyptian, and Indian,

up to our post-modern era. Moreover, my artwork was inspired from Jeanette Winterson’s

novel Written on the Body. Hence, my contribution encompasses the merging of ancient,

modern and post-modern erotic artwork. However, this merging occurs through my

implementation of certain color and movement techniques inspired by the previously

mentioned eras, in order to emphasize erotic fantasies and aesthetics on canvas.

[FINDINGS] This project-research produced a number of key findings based on the

following three works:

x The application of Michael Apter’s “Reversal Theory” which focuses on the

subjective projection of erotic fantasies into art.

x Daniel Berlyne’s “The Aesthetic-Pleasure Arousal Theory” that infers that

aesthetics achieved rely on subjective nostalgic thought was utilized throughout the thesis

to highlight the pleasant experience achieved by the viewer.

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x The five erotic concepts were the concepts of my paintings exhibited in my virtual

art gallery reflected the major erotic concepts of Jeanette Winterson’s novel Written on the

Body. They are: The Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body, The Concept of

Sexuality Associated with Penetration, The Fluidity and Permeability concept of the body,

The Romantic Conventions of Boundaries, and The Storyteller Ambiguous Gender

Concept.

[CONCLUSION] The main conclusion of this project-research is that erotic art operates on

arousal to generate aesthetics reactions. In addition, those reactions may be pleasant or

unpleasant to the viewer while perceiving an erotic artwork, reflecting to his nostalgic

unconscious experiences.

[RECOMMENDATION] My recommendation for artists is to present their art production

with personal projection of their own experience, and let the viewer decode the erotic

elements by gazing at the artwork, that might trigger a nostalgic aesthetic reaction.

[KEY WORDS] Erotic, fantasies, aesthetic, pleasure, art, reversal, arousal, reaction,

unconscious, pleasure, sexuality, post-modern, color, techniques, movement.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Neolithic Goddess, Museum of Cairo 11

Source: https: www.researchgate.net/figure/Rhombus-shaped-points-from-Lithuanian-

Stone-Age.

Figure 2: Neolithic Goddess, Museum of Cairo 11

Source: https: www.researchgate.net/figure/Rhombus-shaped-points-from-Lithuanian-

Stone-Age.

Figure 3: Mother Goddess on a throne Neolithic, Museum of Cairo 12

Source: https: www.researchgate.net/figure/Rhombus-shaped-points-from-Lithuanian-

Stone-Age.

Figure 4 : Museum of Cairo 14

Source: Nasio, Juan-David’s article Tous Voyeurs, in the French magazine Le Nouvel

Observateur.

Figure 5 : Queen Néfertiti 14

Source: Nasio, Juan-David’s article Tous Voyeurs, in the French magazine Le Nouvel

Observateur.

Figure 6 : Aphrodite of Cnide 16

Source: www.britannica.com/topic/Aphrodite-of-Cnidus

Figure 7 : Kandariya Mahadeva Temple 17

Source: http://www.apamnapat.com/entities/Kama.html

Figure 8 : Khajurâho Temple) 17

Source: http://www.apamnapat.com/entities/Kama.html

Figure 9 : Nude Eve. Gislebertus 18

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Source:

http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2009/10/19/deagonnakedbdpart1/#axzz3kZ89t3lP

Figure 10 : Saint Sébastien Mantegna, Kari Ressouni-Demigneux 19

Source: http://semgai.free.fr/doc_et_pdf/pdf_these_articles_externes/ressouni. PDF

Figure 11: St. Teresa of Avila 19

Source: www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-teresa-of-avila

Figure 12: The Harem, Jean Gerome 20

Source: https://bestamericanart.blogspot.com/2010/11/romantic-orientalism-harem.html

Figure 13: Odalisque with slave, Jean Auguste Dominique 20

Source: https://bestamericanart.blogspot.com/2010/11/romantic-orientalism-harem.html

Figure 14: Aphrodite, Christian Cross 21

Source: https://www.paintedchrist.com/christian-art-jesus-paintings

Figures 15, 16: Jackie Adshead 22

Source: jackieadshead.uk

Figures 17, 18: Shana Molt 22

Source: www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/751091

Figure 19, 20: Maria Sarkis 22

Source: www.dnaindia.com

Figures 21, 22, 23, and 24: Pablo Picasso 27

Source: www.ugallery.com/artist/Pablo_Picasso

Figures 25, 26, and 27: Georgia O’Keefe 28

Source: www.ugallery.com/artist/krispen-spencer

Figures 28, 29, and 30: Victor Nizovtsev 29

š

Source:

http://www.mcbridegallery.com/nizovtsev/nizovtsevgicleeprints/nizovtsevgicleeprintsm

ermaids.html

Figures 31, 32, 33, and 34: Jose Antonio Pandora Hernández 30

Source: www.facebook.com/antoniojose.hernandezpantoja/photos

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Introduction

a. Background

Art and its aesthetics have historically been an influential factor in the human

experience, they play a crucial role in the makeup of culture. One’s culture determines

to which extent suppressed sexual desires can manifest. Art is found in many cultures,

and erotic art to be precise, makes up an immense part of artistic expression. This

affects the subjects of every culture, and one can observe this influence through the

individual’s desires, fantasies and behavior.

The experience of viewing an artwork has a profound impact on the viewer’s psyche.

The colors, textures and shapes found in art may ignite emotional responses within the

viewer that can awaken the slumber of many suppressed memories. Furthermore, these

emotions can be felt smoothly or intensely, thus determining whether the experience of

the artwork is pleasurable or not, and this where the aesthetic part of art plays a crucial

role.

In sum, we will be examining the subjective unconscious images and symbols within

paintings, and how that is expressed within different cultures and how aesthetics can

affect the viewer on a psychological and even religious level.

The expression of erotic fantasies has always been found throughout the history of art,

and has been a ground breaking movement throughout cultures from all over the world.

The manifestation of desires and fantasies has found itself in Japan, China, India, Egypt

and Europe, but all with different approaches regarding the attainment of pleasure. In

illustration, what is clearly demonstrated in prehistoric paintings is the idea of survival

instinct, also known as Eros, which infers that the libido is always the main constituent

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in art, as in life. Thus, one can conclude that desire whether for survival or pleasure has

always been a driving force within mankind. In addition, the paintings that are presented

in this project research, which is the practical work, are heavily influenced by the

expression of eroticism throughout history. Therefore, the analysis and interpretation of

historical artifacts will play a crucial role in determining the social rules of attainting

pleasure, and what brings upon nostalgic emotions.

But to which extent might pleasure or displeasure be attained from viewing an erotic

artwork? How does aesthetics affect the psyche? And can art really project even our

complex desires and their accumulations? From here, this project -research approaches

the relationship between erotic fantasies and aesthetics in paintings. It questions if

aesthetics of a painting can truly project a visualization of erotic desires and their

accumulations, and if so, then under which notions and techniques? The above

questions can be approached in numerous ways, but a serious analysis is required, in the

form of interrogations of historical reviews, aesthetic representations and analysis of

contemporary art.

b. Research Focus

The focus of my research demonstrates that erotic arousal can initiate aesthetics, with

the intention of pleasure or not, while viewing an erotic artwork. Thus I am inferring

that aesthetics in paintings are subjective, due to the fact that the artwork may trigger

an emotional response that can awaken the suppressed memories within the viewer.

Based on the following theoretical reviews I was able to manifest ideologies and

analysis into reality with my practical work. Every concept adopted from theories and

literature is further elaborated and materialized throughout my paintings and artworks.

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THEORIES:

ƒ “Reversal-Theory” and “The Aesthetic-Pleasure Arousal”

The subject of relating art/aesthetics to erotic desires was discussed by

Michael Apter’s “Reversal-Theory” and Daniel Berlyne’s theory “The

Aesthetic-Pleasure Arousal”

Firstly, Michael Apter’s “Reversal-Theory” (1999), infers that the viewer,

while perceiving an erotic theme painting, may project himself into the

painting and thus may travel back in time in his unconscious journeys and

model himself into a type of erotic image.

This journey in the perceiver’s unconscious mind may generate a feel of

nostalgia of certain suppressed experienced memories. Therefore, if the feel

generated from past experiences is pleasurable the end result is a pleasurable

aesthetic. Whereas if the feel of nostalgia is of a suppressed trauma then the

aesthetic achieved is dis-pleasurable.

Secondly, aesthetics is achieved according to Daniel Berlyne’s theory “The

Aesthetic-Pleasure Arousal” even if the end result of perceiving an erotic

artwork is pleasurable or dis-pleasurable.

ƒ “Post-Modern Concepts of the Body”

Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body features major erotic concepts that

are related to the pleasure theory of the erotic elements. Winterson introduced

a narrator of many sexual identities; she also showed in her book that

postmodernism and romance can mix by combining a virtual narrator with a

romantic narrative. What Winterson changed about postmodernism is the body

concept where what seemed to be firm and stable became fluid and

changeable. Also Winterson in her novel criticizes androcentric science and its

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 damaging way of exploring and dissecting the female body. These ideological

stances materialized into shapes, movements and colors onto my paintings.

The main concepts that where interpreted and analyzed are the following:

x Wholeness and fragmentation of the body at the same time.

x Androcentric concept of sexuality associated with penetration.

x Permeability and impermeability of the body.

x Relation of a coherent body to another body.

x Romantic conventions of boundaries.

x The erotic of sameness.

Hypothesis

If aesthetic arousal is achieved in erotic paintings that revolve around practical

techniques and color movements, then pleasure or displeasure can be achieved as a

result of the nostalgic emotions.

C. Overall Research Aims and Individual Research objectives

The aim of this project – research is to tackle the bond between erotic fantasies and

aesthetics in abstract paintings, and the main driving force in choosing the topic of

this research, is revolved around the fact that art is a profound mode of expression

that I genuinely regard as one the highest forms of aesthetic experience. Being a

painter has awakened something within me that no words can explain, only colors,

shapes and textures.

Moreover, what intrigues me is deciphering designs and paintings in order to reveal

the reasons, motives, and passions. As I believe that exploring the essence of human

beings with the help of an immense vessel called art is a deep and penetrating

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psychological and emotional experience within itself.

I have experienced the flow of emotions, desires and memories from my inner world,

straight onto the external world with abstract movements that my soul led my fingers

to perform. Even throughout the creation of my artwork, I felt my own unconscious

state pouring out to be viewed by others and myself. I also concluded that I might

even feel something different when I observe, as opposed to when I painted it. This

experience has uncovered the truest depth of my desires, and has acted as a mirror for

the viewer’s own desires.

At the beginning of my research, my initial hypothesis was: if erotic fantasies are

implemented in paintings then pleasure is achieved. However, erotic synergies are

referred to by a sum of erotic fantasies, found in Apter’s “Reversal Theory” and

Berlyne’s “Arousal Theory”. I deduced that if one may project him-self in the

painting, aesthetic is achieved and not only pleasure but also displeasure may arise

based on the nostalgic feeling projected while viewing the painting. In addition, I

found that the viewer might perceive the creative momentary state of the artist,

according to Susan Wagner (1992). Hence, these two findings contributed to the

wider understanding of the results of viewing an erotic painting; revolving around

arousal, pleasure or displeasure. They widened my awareness of the artist’s

subconscious state at the creational moment within themselves. Moreover, Jeanette

Winterson’s (1993) five erotic postmodern terms inspired me to group my paintings

into the previously stated concepts revolving around erotic postmodern terms.

Furthermore, I was enticed to draw my paintings in a way that expressed these

concepts. I was inspired by concepts such as wholeness, unity, totality and oneness.

Recently, I have decided to exhibit my new collection of paintings under the name “

Fire on the Floor”. I integrated the five concepts of Jeanette Winterson as a

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background of the paintings and I did body prints of female and male primary and

secondary sexual organs, representing such concepts.

Consequently, my art production in this thesis, will use the ideas of the historical and

theoretical reviews to proceed into an art production in which I will not inspect the

viewers reaction to my abstract art production, rather I will approach the erotic art

from the perspective of an artist.

d. Value of this Research

The value of this research is to inspire painters to create aesthetic sensations which

are more important than erotic signs, simply because they explore human wholeness.

This statement is formed of nostalgic sexual fantasies, defined in terms of an aim to

create a painting that offers an aesthetical emotional experience. The value of an

artwork is identical to the value of the aesthetic experienced by the spectator.

It is worth mentioning that this study may open the debate on the dominance of

feminine figures in artwork and paintings besides motivating painters, postmodernist

critics, feminists, psychologists, tourists, and women in general, as well as our young

Lebanese generation. Since painting has become a vital mode of expression in

Lebanon, interpreting and situating it in a larger context will help the Lebanese

culture appreciate this part of their heritage that is intertwined with that of the world.

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PART ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This literature review makes a correlation between history, theories, erotic paintings,

and erotic signs. It plays a role in connecting the artist to the viewer. In the first

chapter, we will start by describing eroticism throughout the ages, using erotic

artworks in different historical eras. This visual description will provide a solid base

for the exploration and interpretation of eroticism. It is important to note that the

presentation to historical expression of eroticism is an essential factor in giving the

reader a practical viewing experience of erotic artwork. Thus, historical erotic artwork

will be present in the mind of the reader in order to provide a pre-existing visual

knowledge of the physical materialization and expression of erotic fantasies.

Therefore, this historical research influenced my practical work with the cultural and

spiritual erotic norms and signs found throughout the eras.

Throughout the course of the research, the mode of comparison and differentiation

was heavily emphasized, in order to create a bridge between my own artwork and to

various concepts found in Winterson’s novel.

In my given hypothesis, I inferred that the experience of viewing an artwork, could

initiate aesthetics due to erotic arousal. I based my project / research on two basic

psychological theories which are Apter’s “Reversal Theory” and Berlyne’s “Arousal

Theory”:

x The Reversal theory is a theory of personality, motivation and emotion as

defined in the field of psychology. It focuses on human experiences in order to

describe how a person reverses between a psychological state and reflecting

meaning on given situations.

x The Arousal focuses on a psychological and physiological state of being that

is stimulated after viewing an artwork, which triggers certain brain activity

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 leading to a state of excitement.

Both these theories can be explained in a subjective light since they heavily rely on

the viewer’s personal experiences. These experiences can be either a pleasurable or

dis-pleasurable understanding of art. However, our focus in this thesis is on the

pleasurable understanding of erotic art.

In what follows, Chapter I sheds light on the erotic elements present in selective erotic

artwork in various cultures and decades.

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CHAPTER I

A VOYAGE THROUGH AN EROTIC LENS

1.1 Introduction

In this chapter we will encounter the different manifestations of eroticism in art

throughout various cultures. This chapter sheds light on the erotic elements

present in different historical and contemporary artworks in various cultures. In

the same way, we will trace the subject of eroticism through civilization as well as

assess its dominance in religions and beliefs throughout history, such as in Egypt,

and Europe. I will also examine, India and Gothic puritanism, orientalism era,

modernist era until we reach our postmodern era. However, in this chapter, in

order to show the place of erotic aesthetics in art forms of different centuries and

cultures, we will acknowledge that erotic signs are not a recent phenomenon, but

rather historically rooted within our psychology and mentality.

Furthermore, Edward Hall’s book The Hidden Dimension (1966) was a primary inspiration

for this chapter. He states the following:

The greatest criticism one can make of the many attempts to interpret man’s past is

that they project onto the visual world of the past the structure of the visual world of

the present (Hall, 1966 p14).

From Edward Hall’s quote we may deduce that when an individual interprets the past,

they understand it with the eyes and mind of the present. The present reforms an

inaccurate recall of the past. Thus, the visual world of the present reforms the

memories made up of sensory data. It transforms and creates a new version of the

past.

In what follows, different perceptions of the erotic concepts in selected eras will be

presented. Such erotic interpretations are revealed in the presentation of women in the

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sculptures of the Paleolithic era, the erotic expressions in paintings and sacred

engravings in Egypt; a plastic model of perfect male musculature versus the female

roundness to celebrate an idealized body in Europe. Moreover, the facades of bodily

curved orgies on stones in India, erotic sacred art in the religious Gothic iconographic

era, and finally a representation of the erotic art works. Hence, erotic art can be

inspected over many eras and cultures, yet I will limit my research to the sacred art in

the eras and cultures, which follow.

1.2 An unveiled Paleolithic beauty

What is the relationship between nature and its representation, the licit and the illicit,

the veiled and the revealed, the ideal and the revival, the poetic and bestiality? The

questions which the artists asked over thousands of years as they undertook the task

of exploring these journeys of the anticipation of pleasure, “the disguise of the desire”

(Aristophanes, 425 BCE), and the confrontation with the mystery of ‘the other’,

which we will name eroticism. This brings me to my next point.

Because of the attention given to nude bodies, especially the female figure in

prehistoric times, Venus seemed to represent sexuality in a realistic way, so any

figurations of religious or magical expressions depended on desire (Figure 1).

Similarly, in 1926, the psychoanalyst George Henri noticed and identified that the

generating character of women and their voluptuous appeal, awakened the authors of

art works. The first erotic image named the Rhombus, as an example in green steatite,

where the head and the ends are neglected, while the centers, the buttock and the sex

organs are extraordinarily highlighted.

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(Figure 1. Neolithic Goddess, Museum of Cairo)

Adding to R Dale Guthrie, the painted Rhombus, figurines or sculptures translate

aesthetic choices, which lie in the private individual plays of the angles, volumes and

proportion causing the masculine desire to awaken. In the same way, the Paleolithic

artist shows in his book carvings of The Goddess Venus, who seemed most desirable,

exhibiting nudity along with deformed shapes and showing signs of sexual references

revealing its joyous secrets which have a direct aesthetic erotic value. Taking note

that, then, Paleolithic art was the expression of a full human conscience, embodied in

signs, in addition to stylized sexual organs read in an ambiguous way (Figure 2).

(Figure 2. Neolithic Goddess, Museum of Cairo)

After encountering the sculptures of ivory and the accessories found in Dolin,

discovered in 1925 in Moravia, we may interpret scenes of coupling where the

masculine is a phallus representation, and female figures in childbirth signify pure

plays of sameness of forms (Figure 3).

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(Figure 3. Mother Goddess on a throne Neolithic, Museum of Cairo)

1.3 Sensual Egypt

Moving on through our journey into the sensuality of divine and sacred nudity in

ancient Egyptian time, we reach a groundbreaking correlation between aesthetic

eroticism and its subterfuge of pleasure in sensual Egypt. The erotic and sexual

concepts that appear in paintings and sacred engravings show the Egyptian mentality

of demonstrating the creative sexuality of the Gods. This will be represented in the

following selective artwork of this era.

Firstly, embodied in the guiding principle of “The Walk of the World” carvings of the

goddess, Hathor’s love was exposed in Caroline Sea Wright's article “With the Prow

of the Re-boat” (Nov 29, 2000). One of principal cosmogonies of the Egyptian

methodology, Heliopolis the demiurge scholar, made known that while masturbating,

the Egyptian God was watching Chou and Tefnout giving birth to his child. Where

Chou personified the air and the light, and Tefnout signified the heat of the sun. Thus,

masturbation and the dilation of the sexual organs while giving birth were represented

on carvings due to their sensual and erotic significances.

Furthermore, we notice the eroticism and the Egyptian sexuality expressed in a more

deprived artistic register than those found in the Ostrava. These cut spalls or shards of

poetry on which artists drew are where one indeed finds aesthetic naked women

carved, like the Dancing Girl in the Museum of Turin, representing a dancer making

the bridge, wearing only a tiny loincloth and offering herself to the god. Thus, one

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can conclude that not full nudity is the sole representation of eroticism, but even the

slightest gesture could be erotic within itself.

Likewise, we can also find another phallus representation of divine aesthetic

sensuality in a form of erotic voluptuousness signified in the artistic work. As well as

hidden erotic messages embodied in the reserves of the museum of Cairo, revealing

on its inscription that it was a gift offered to the Goddess Hathor by the ramose royal

scribe of Ramses II (Figure 4) who beseeches the goddess of love to give him the

children he never had.

Additionally, Decagon’s Gilded Serpent (2009) offered other depictions of ballet

dance in Egypt, and the sign network of ideas behind the nudity of the painted

banquet dancers, giving a sense that the Nebamun dancers and others are afterlife

projections, rather than accurately depicted entertainers. Also, boudoirs and

whorehouses artwork compositions featured naked belly dancing every day of the

year since, as in many cultures of the ancient and modern world, ancient Egyptian

prostitutes made music and danced to entertain and sensually arouse their

customers. Such scenes may be those depicted on the Turin Erotic Papyrus, found in

the workmen’s village at Deir el Medina, and on potsherds on which bored workmen

sketched out some of their fantasies of naked women, momentarily laying aside their

musical instruments.

So if the Nebamun dancers were projections of afterlife blessings rather than realistic

representations of gigging dancers, how was real-life represented?

(Gilded Serpent, Decagon 2009 p 30)

Deducing that Egyptian eroticism is characterized by its sensuality rather than its

cruelty, which gave it its savor, the female body and its curves were better

emphasized by aesthetic erotic busts of Gods and Goddesses. For instance Queen

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Nefertiti’s image (Figure 5) which had a sensual mouth, and transparent drape flax

which hides almost nothing, but promises so much, as we may also see in the

following famous carvings, sculptures, and paintings, such as Ballerina in the

Museum of Turin.

(Figure 4. Museum of Cairo)

(Figure 5.Queen Nefertiti)

1.4 Flawless Europe

From ancient Egypt we move on to Greece and Rome, where we find the genuine

perfection of the male musculature versus the female roundness to celebrate an

idealized body where the laws of ancient eroticism always had the same goal: to

create desire.

Francis Prost (2006), a professor in archeology, after a visit to the Greek and Roman

art galleries of the Louvre, to the British museum and to the Vatican, decided the

principal of attraction was a contemplation of body strips or an overture of the

callipygian and of the valuable figure of the heroes. This laid the ground for meeting

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improbable statues of hermaphrodites, the white of marble, and massive installations

with round surfaces of huge volumes, which have been used for a long time in

European art, which was tarnished, by Christian norms and values.

Naturally, today, eroticism is evident and surpassed by the collection of sculptures

and antique paintings, which appear quite tasteless, if compared with the innumerable

images, revealed by the effigies that still exist. In illustration, one of the most famous

Greek statues, Aphrodite of Cnide (Figure 6), a representation of the Goddess of love

mounted in a ‘Tholos’, a circular temple, where the effigy is naked, a headband in her

hair and a bracelet ring on her upper arm. Its form shows an incarnation of the

aesthetic body of perfection. Thus, the goal of Praxiteles, the famous sculptor, was

indeed to propose a genuine form which can represent the Goddess of Love in all her

glory and sensuality, and its nude setting seemed to have been a response perfectly

adapted to its time.

In sequence, the sculptor Praxiteles was certainly aware of the Aphrodite effect and it

is what defines the ambiguity of its erotic divine representation. If the dimensions

assemble the glance with the desire, we can see in them the full curves of the form

and arm, then we see the signified dimensions on the left which appear more in

withdrawal, where the curves are concave and the arm seems like it has covered the

body with an elegant cloth on the side of the goddess. , Also the hands outline a

gesture of modesty; therefore, the statue turns us into adoring spectators, at the same

moment it appeals to the eyes, undresses a desire, but maintains its distance. Thus, it

is precisely one of the very first dimensions of the Western essence of an aesthetic

eroticism, where the image is desirable, yet remains inaccessible. Hence, the body’s

nudity is another form of disguise, which one chooses in order to charm because of its

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suggested power. The plastic perfection of male muscularity or female roundness,

especially in Greek heritage is a contribution of the divine. Knowing that the laws of

ancient eroticism are always the same, reaching an end in which the spectrum

emphasizes attraction to the setting in the distance, the man or the woman becomes

desirable, but at the same time far away from the common mortals, in an inaccessible

world. Lastly, the Greeks as well as the Romans developed forms of artwork more

explicit in their manner, where the aesthetic bodies and the desires they arouse show

eroticism is conveyed on paintings of Greek vases or in some statues discovered in

the villas of Pompeii, which might today be considered pornographic.

(Figure 6.Aphrodite of Cnide)

1.5 Tantric India

Traveling back in time to the provinces of India, one discovers the same erotic

concepts. The erotic signs on the temples such as Kandariya Mahadeva Temple

(Figure 7) and Khajuraho Temple (Figure 8), encountered in previous eras, are

embedded in cultures or on facades of erotic sculptures. All the lust of the world

displayed including fellatio, bestiality and sodomy, where the bodily curved orgies on

stones, is allocated in cultural-spiritual places.

In India, sex is not a sin, and besides the word “sin” wasn’t regarded as its modern

context. Indian physical love, is defined by Apam Napat (2005), with four

fundamental parts or aims, the first is the “Kama” which refers to desire for passion

and emotions, the second is “Dharma” which is the right way of action or behavior,

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the third is “Artha” which means purpose or essence; and lastly the “Moksha”, which

is the release and the wishful delivery of any desire. Kama is the Hindu God of desire

whom one could compare to the Greek God Eros. Kama is very powerful since “we

live in the area of desire” according to The Rig-Veda. Ralph T. H. Griffith in his

translation of The Hymns of the Rig-Veda (1896)

Love in its erotic form, like pleasure of the senses is present and active in all ancient

Indian texts. In ancient India the most famous text is indisputably The Kama Sutra as

referred to by Richard Burton’s translation, (2009), undoubtedly the first of its kind,

traditionally attributed to a philosopher named Vatsyayana, who is believed to have

lived close to the 2nd century CE. The author described the sixty-four positions of

erotic physical/spiritual love; the way Indian aristocrats used to practice it, and also

dreamed of doing so. These erotic curved sculptures are actually judicious and

spiritual, in that it is possible to see “the postures of the heart” and it is true that in the

tantric tradition, some have tended to sublimate the sex act, which does not prohibit

pleasure. On the contrary, it prolongs pleasure where one sees a fresh sexuality in the

full images of the erotic forms, shapes and assembled glances of desire.

(Figure 7. Kandariya Mahadeva Temple)

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(Figure 8. Khajuraho Temple)

1.6 Gothic Puritanism

Eleanor Cunningham (2018) claims that India invented eroticism or sensual art, i.e.

love for the sake of love, conveying the preoccupation with a reproduction, as

previously experienced with the Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and the Romans,

whereas in Christian Puritanism, it all rests on a strict “imitation” of Christ, imposing

restrictions regarding sex, which turns the obsession into an ideal way to live, as said

by St. Paul and to live, referring to Landry (2008), as if one did not have a woman or

a wife. For chastity and virtue to be upheld, sexuality is considered shameful, and

“the trade of the flesh” leads to lust, which in turn leads people to the eternal burning

kingdom of Satan’s Hell.

In the middle Ages, the Christian church believed that the flesh was sinful up until the

Renaissance where the eroticized representations warned the faithful against the

statutes of strong sexual desires and concupiscence. This horrible complex image of

the body is in the eyes of Christianity, whereas its beauty, power and attraction are

sacred to the pagan deities. One of the best examples of this dark vision is a nude Eve

(Figure 9) carved by Gislebertus found in the Cathedral of Autumn. According to Art

and Culture blog (2010), Eve is described as trying to crawl circumvented as a form

and shape of a reptile, among scattered foliage, a humiliated Eve, grounded as if

begging.

(Figure 9. Nude Eve. Gislebertus)

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Similarly, in Italy, between the years 1450-1500, we can see religious iconography

revealed on the most allusive occasion with a bold masculine side, such as Christian

martyrdoms, like Saint Sebastian Mantegna (Figure 10) penetrated with arrows. After

that, Karim Ressouni-Demigneux’s paintings became icons of homosexuality (1996).

As for females, the finest historical representation of "enjoyment" is elsewhere,

signed by Bernini (1644-1657), of St. Teresa of Avila (Figure 11) in ecstasy, a bodily

shape that exalts a caressing unprecedented beauty, and the extraordinary power of an

erotic cry of ecstasy at the time when she sees an Angel perforating the heart with an

arrow of gold.

(Figure 10. Saint Sébastien Mantegna. Karim Ressouni-Demi)

(Figure 11.St. Teresa of Avila)

1.7 Orientalism era

Orientalism dates from the period of European Enlightenment and colonization of the

Arab World. This era provided a rationalization for European colonialism based on a

self-serving history in which the erotic art of the west constructed the art of the east,

as extremely ‘different’. Edward Said, in Orientalism (1995), defined orientalism as

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the acceptance of the west, a social description concerning the oriental erotic art, its

people’s culture and responses. Moreover, orientalism is a way of seeing erotic

artwork of Arab artist and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often

involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, and erotic.

In what comes next, examples of early Orientalism can be seen in European paintings

and artwork in the 19th and early 20th centuries, shown in Paris museums, such as

Jean Gerome’s “The Harem” painted in 1876, (Figure 12), Jean Auguste Dominique’s

“Odalisque with slave” painted in Bursa in 1839 (Figure 13).

The erotic pleasure in Orientalism is shown as a repressed sexual illustration, clothes

or objects such as a hijab or shawl for females may repress the initial exposition of

erotic sex differences too. Additionally, the man’s figure is often hidden.

(Figure 12. The Harem, Jean Gerome)

(Figure 13. Odalisque with slaves Jean Auguste Dominique)

1.8 A signified modern era

Erotic art has always existed. It dates back to the oldest surviving illustrations of

erotic depictions. Many art and philosophies as seen earlier in the chapter, have

transformed eroticism in paintings throughout history into a perception of both the

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erotic and art. Many international and national modernist artists create moving

forward in time, erotic art in the modern era will be illustrated by selective pieces of

erotic. The modern erotic- aesthetics era is the philosophy of art and beauty which

starts from roughly the beginning of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century,

where simplicity of forms and shapes, clarity of body curves are projected in the art

work of artists who painted on canvas in themes of feminine-masculine sexuality

using essential erotic and of fantasies, showing the erotic paintings as a delight of

aesthetic sexuality.

Cleopatra was the great Egyptian Queen whose charms inspired many modernist

artists such as Christian Cross where the goddess Aphrodite is a prototypical

representation of Cleopatra. Cross’s painting (Figure 14) also arouses seductive,

thrilling and erotic pleasure, thus just like a Goddess, Cleopatra portrays a highly

feminine sexual presence, where her body forms an erotic silhouette.

(Figure 14. Aphrodite, Christian Cross)

Additionally, Jackie Adshead’s art which is referred to as erotic modern art evolving

from the thought of drawing the human body, emphasizing the light that caresses the

skin, with the longing sense that the viewer by looking will prefer it his/her brain to

be filled with the details that his/her eye could not perceive. This is what she believes

creates an erotic moment. Also, she has always loved the dramatic strong light and

uses that powerful effect in her white-on-black erotic drawings. (Figure 15,16)

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(Figure 15,16. Jackie Adshead)

Another painter who shaped women’s bodies by moving pictures depicting the female

figure in a state of change is Shana Molt. As an erotic artist, Molt revealed in (2019)

that her art expresses that she is, who she wants to be, and where she wants to go.

(Figure 17,18)

(Figure 17,18. Shana Molt)

Furthermore, in 2007 the “Galerie Surface Libre” presented works of the artist Maria

Sarkis in a joint exhibition in Beirut, pushing the boundaries with an exhibition called

“Erotica”. Sarkis’ topic of eroticism defined feminism and erotic desires, where the

compositions are dynamic and solid in three-dimensional concepts in the

representation of the female body. (Figure 19,20)

(Figure 19, 20. Maria Sarkis)

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1.9 A transcended postmodern era

In what follows here, we shall differentiate between erotic art in the modern and the

postmodern era. The idea of reality endured as a major change during the modern

erotic era, as reality was seen in the act of perceiving it, the modernist erotic artists

considered the world as what they say it is. In contrast, erotic art in postmodern times

is a reaction against modernism, a reflection of earlier styles, movements, and the

mixing of different artistic media. Hence, postmodernism is a radical break from

modernism.

The chapter will now show how the role of various elements of aesthetics can be

supported from a theoretical perspective. For instance, semiotics, subjectivity, reality,

cultural stimulus, nostalgia, ambiguity, skepticism, are all parts of the real element of

aesthetic pleasure.

1.9.1 The role of semiotics in aesthetic reactions

Referring to Jean Baudrillard (1994), in Simulacra and Simulation, the component of

aesthetics can be produced by more than one factor. For instance, in the figurative

portraits, the artists incorporate semantic data about various items. Understanding this

data helps the viewer of the art to understand what the artist is trying to portray. In

addition, the manner in which the viewer understands this data has a great effect on

their aesthetic reaction. The art piece “The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian”

was drawn by Manet to objectify the verdict of the French authority to take away

Maximillian’s authority during the period when he was the ruler of Mexico. If a

person is not familiar with this history, it is highly likely that they miss the important

message of the artwork. Another example to demonstrate the cognitive component of

aesthetics, referred to by Ferdinand de Saussure, is the use of traditional codes as a

link to connotations. A lamb can be used to signify purity, a bull for authority, and an

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owl for acumen or wisdom. However, if someone does not understand these codes, it

is likely that they will not comprehend the symbolism in the art.

Alternatively, the role of structuralism and post-structuralism defined by Simon

Blackburn, Jacques Derrida, and Roland Barthes are elements of artwork we cite,

Structuralism is the belief that phenomena of human life are intelligible except

through their interpretations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local

variations in the surface phenomena these are constant laws of abstract structure

(Simon Blackburn, 2010,p145)

1.9.2 The role of subjectivity in aesthetic reactions

In the Polysomic Theory of Value described by Franklin and Wooden, we find that

some occurrences, that are not considered to be works of art, can spark the same

aesthetic feelings when a person interacts with them. For instance, the colors of the

sunset or the sound of the waves at the coast can spark aesthetic reactions. In

addition, an object that is very ordinary can bring about positive or negative

emotional reactions because of its form or shape. Therefore, it is possible to

differentiate between works of art and the natural world. For example, in the image

of dawn, the forest and the mist that surrounds a person’s house may seem to be very

artistic as it sparks aesthetic reactions. However, as soon as the sun rises and the mist

disappears, the person will not be able to recreate what they saw. On the other hand,

viewing a drawing can be done as often as one desires a static object. However,

natural occurrence is not always available to experience. Therefore, this shows that

the experiences of the natural world are slightly different to those experiences of

objects that are not susceptible to the fluctuations of time.

1.9.3 The role of reality in aesthetic reactions

A work of art cannot be described solely based on the kind of impact it has on the

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observer. This is because different observers experience different impacts when they

see the same kind of art. Even though people tend to limit themselves to the

contemplation of items that have been produced by people, the definition of the work

of art cannot be solely based on influences. The art has to be defined, based on its

unique features and the aims of the artist who produced it, and the random

classification of the art according to society.

To illustrate, In Rudolf Arnhems book, New Essays in the Psychology of Art (1974),

he argues that an art composition has describing traits. Therefore, one piece of art

could possess a never-ending record of features that tell it apart from other

compositions without developing a consensus between different viewers. In some

cases, one can find it hard to grasp some of the features that come easily to others

because they do not have similar frames of reference. For instance, when Roy

Wagner (1986) was shown a can of Campbell’s tomato soup, he described it simply

as soup. When he was shown a picture of a painting by Andy Warhol, he described it

as art.

1.9.4 The role of culture stimulus in aesthetic reactions

When trying to inspect a number of possible defining traits, we realize that, “A work

of art is a sign for or a representation of reality” (Helen De Cruz, 2011, p25). To infer

on this thought, art expresses and elaborates the reality that the artists resides in.

Thus, art can enable the articulation of social, cultural and political ideas, events and

behaviors. This is why art is highly regarded as a form of expression and stimulation

of one’s inner and external reality. Moreover, this claim does not seem to differentiate

the non-figurative art such as music and some pictorial art.

Likewise, the individual traits and the behavior of various artists are used to

incorporate some of the items into the art classification. In its most basic structure,

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this idea leads to the description of a piece of art as an object that is made by the

artist. Freud declared that human biology interacted with one’s own culture stimulus

and experiences.

Hence, looking at the description of a piece of art from this point of view may lead

one to analyze the story and other compositions behind the art; such as the stimulus.

It could be either a feeling or a cultural aspect that led the artist to create the art in

that precise way. Moreover, Freud explains such aspects of art compositions with the

help of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo’s artworks. He analyzed the life stories

of these two artists with the aim of revealing the link between their life experiences

and their works of art. This technique of defining art has been an inspiration to many

writers and critics of historical art. It has also been one of the motivations behind the

field of psychohistory (Erik Erikson, 1958). Freud also believed that his general

notion provided an understanding of the quality of erotic creativity.

Furthermore, we shall elaborate on how the post-modern erotic paintings’ ideas

transcended the following: ambiguity, nostalgia, and skepticism. Referring to

Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1990), Frederic Jameson

has offered us a particularly influential analysis of our current postmodern era referring

to a picture of the present, and the loss of our connection to history. What we are left

with is a fascination with the present.

Referring to Ferdinand de Saussure, Jose Maria Bermejo (2006) Picasso Cubism

concentrated on patterns, functions of languages itself, and showed that the relationship

that exists between the signifier and the signified is purely subjective and analytic.

Bermejo judged Picasso as one of the greatest influences on Cubism in the 20th century.

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Pablo Picasso often mixed painting media and styles, and influenced the surrealism era.

He interpreted on canvas what he saw in his daily life and he elevated collage to the

level of fine art. (Figures 21, 22, 23, 24)

(Figures 21, 22, 23, 24)

1.9.5 The role of ambiguity in aesthetic reactions

To start with, we decode from Markus Gabriel (2009) in The Art of Skepticism and

the Skepticism of Art, that ambiguity is the master of the scene; the perceiver will first

question the reality of the art piece, wondering how to decipher the image, decoding

the embedded signs in order to understand the signified. The contemplator of a

certain piece of painting will question what the intent of the artist was in that par

atelic moment, the earlier position, place and time, and if the painting captures a

present experience or even an unreal imaginary world.

Georgia O’Keefe is a postmodern artist of the erotic. We perceive in her series of

paintings “Jack in the Pulpit”, ambiguous signs where details trigger the concept that

emphasizes the true meaning of the artwork (Figures 25, 26, 27).

Nothing is less real than realism, where details are confusing. It is only by selection,

elimination, and emphasis that we get the real meaning of things

(Georgia O'Keeffe, 2012).

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(Figures 25, 26, 27) Jack in the Tulip. Georgia O’Keefe

1.9.6 The role of Nostalgic critiques in aesthetic reactions

Secondly, nostalgia as another post-modern key term where in the perceiver’s eyes,

there is a feeling of reminiscence, which is textured. Thus, while perceiving a

painting, nostalgia plays a crucial role in the pleasurable or dis-pleasurable aesthetic

experience.

Kristine Batcho (2013), in her journal article “Nostalgia: the Bittersweet History of

Psychological Concept”, stated that nostalgia can act like a comfort mechanism by

reviving a past memory that may offer relief and contribute to happiness, since its

psychological effects remind the person of a past “good” memory that may also

increase their perceptions of physical warmth. However, the idea of nostalgic

sentiments integrated in human’s aesthetic dis-pleasurable reactions may be classified

as a deception critique, which in some cases can act as a defense mechanism by

which people may deny a suppressed trauma experienced as a historical fact. This

phenomenon can be portrayed in two ways; “the restorative nostalgia” which is a

longing to return to the past and patching of memory gaps, and “the reflective

nostalgia” which cherishes shattered fragments of memory and demoralizes space.

Now, we lean towards the subterranean real and unreal occurrence to experience

nostalgic signs in postmodern paintings by Victor Nizovtsev.“The Siren” (Figures 28,

29, 30) is a series of paintings depicting myths, which show the Siren arousing a

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widespread desire through her postures, which emphasizes the erotic. Everything

glares but must be harmonious so that no single ornament draws attention as if it is a

fantasy coming to reality. Inspiring desire without being obvious, as if the figures

continually lives in the worlds of love and pleasure, as her gesture has a certain

haziness that suggests both innocence and erotic.

(Figure 28,29,30) The Siren. Victor Nizovtsev

1.9.7 The role of skepticism of Art in aesthetic reactions

Third, what might catch the attention of a viewer is their inability to fully decipher

and explain meaning of the painting. This is when skepticism can play a definite role

in attracting the viewers into an abyss of abstract experiences. To infer, Markus

Gabriel in his article “The Art of Skepticism and the Skepticism of Art” claims that

when the viewer of an abstract erotic painting experiences feelings of skepticism,

they are undergoing the process of integrating the reason of critical thinking governed

by the validity of the projected feel of the painting. Thus, to ultimately find a

supported conclusion and not by justifying a preconceived conclusion. Since claims

require evidence seen as signs of reason in art, claims that fetch or violate physical

laws, such as skepticism, are fundamental to the search of truth behind the signifier

and the signified in abstract art.

Since art functions in a similar way of making us self-conscious of the contingency of

our ways of experiencing the world, skepticism and art are intertwined (Markus,

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2009, p60).

In addition, like Jean Baudrillard (1994), whose concept of the simulacrum he adopts

from Simulacra and Simulation, which are complex optical illusion in paintings, have

a vivid surrealist aesthetic appeal. The point was to determine a contradictory state of

dream and reality.

On the other hand, famous surreal artists such as Jose Antonio Pandora Hernandez,

painted illogical views with vibrant precision, strange beings from everyday objects

in his native country Cuba, and developed painting techniques that allowed the

unconscious to express itself. His work became more surreal and somber. Eventually,

he began to paint what he called "The Errors of the Revolution”, where his surrealist

works featured the element of surprise, with unexpected adjacent elements and no

precise sequence (Figures 31, 32, 33, 34).

(Figures 31, 32, 33, 34) Jose Antonio Pandora Hernandez

We have discussed the erotic art in this chapter from historical erotic elements in the

Paleolithic era, through Egypt, Europe, India, Gothic, and the orientalism era,

modernist era to the postmodern era and its ambiguity as signified practices. This was

projected in the artwork of various cultures and artists who painted on canvas and

sculptures in themes of feminine-masculine sexuality. Also, erotic art was displayed

in a very subjective representation, while referring to their erotic fantasies embedded

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in their own cultures, religions, and sacred rituals, denoting how we never know our

current artistic era’s existence unless we know where we have been rooted. Hence the

next chapter will ask; what is the meaning of synergies in erotic fantasies? What does

sexual arousal introduce us to and what is aesthetic-pleasure?

These questions will be explored by reviewing two fundamental theories: Mikael

Apter’s “Reversal Theory” and Daniel Berlyne‘s theory “The Aesthetic Pleasure –

Arousal” to conclude that erotic art is source of satisfaction of aesthetic sexuality.

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CHAPTER 2

2. INTRODUCTION TO EROTIC SYNERGIES, AND AESTHETICS IN

EROTIC ART

2.1. Introduction

We explored how eroticism has been uncovered in artwork, paintings, sculptures,

figures, symbols, monuments, and inscriptions in various nations, cultures, and

religions during different time frames throughout history. One may infer that this art

history syntheses, unveils the sensual erotic in a skeptical way, while eroticism might

be hidden or nonfigurative in other art works.

After denoting the importance of the effect of the ambiguity, the nostalgia, the

skepticism on the viewer while perceiving erotic abstract art, and being an abstract

painter myself, I propose that erotic abstract art triggers pleasure by operating on

arousal, through human attention, awareness, or enthusiasm. This phenomenon occurs

during the course of exploring the characteristics of hedonic incitements that produce

the maximal aesthetic reaction while decoding the ambiguous, nostalgic and skeptical

signs.

The following examines whether the aesthetic reaction was pleasurable or not.

x We will first introduce erotic synergies, and the reason behind them.

x We will examine aesthetic pleasure in art and what erotic art presents.

x We will introduce the “Post-Modern Concepts of the Body” according to Jeanette

Winterson's Written on the Body (Linden Meyer, 1999) in relation to the pleasure

theory of the erotic elements.

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2.2. Erotic synergies

In what follows, we shall define erotic synergies in erotic fantasies, sexual arousal,

and aesthetic pleasure by reviewing two fundamental theories: Mikael Apter’s

“Reversal Theory” and Daniel Berlyne’s theory: “The Aesthetic Pleasure – Arousal”.

First, we will discuss the role of erotic synergies. According to Mikael Apter in

Humor and the Theory of Psychological Reversals (1982), erotic synergies are rooted

and associated in imaginary experiences as “erotic fantasies”, and those synergies

intensify sexual arousal.

Eric Loonis (1999) and Mikael Apter discussed the erotic fantasies, by explaining

these imaginary thoughts. These explanations help clarify the hedonic purpose of

erotic fantasies and have influenced these fantasies, as follows:

2.2.1 Sexual delusions

The erotic synergies justify a number of sexual fantasies to create sexual delusions.

Those delusions trigger sexual stimulation and provide the requirements for sexual

hedonic reactions, and can prompt an elevated intensity of arousal.

2.2.2. Sexual play

The erotic fantasies begin during puberty, or even before. They are originally utilized

as a stimulating agent in the act of masturbation, and after that for sexual play

between adults.

Hence, my interest is to highlight, and clarifying the hedonic purpose of synergies in

erotic fantasies and how they influenced the viewer while perceiving my erotic

artwork production. Furthermore, I decided to integrate those findings in my

paintings to provoke an erotic aesthetic reaction, to the viewer while perceiving my

paintings.

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2.3. Aesthetic pleasure in art

The relationship between erotic delusions and art are explored in Daniel Berlyne’s

“Pleasure-Arousal Theory”(1974). Berlyne tries to find a relationship between

aesthetic pleasure and arousal by formulating the origin of aesthetic pleasure and the

conditions that boost the aesthetic reaction.

Furthermore, the relationship between order and aesthetic pleasure was explored; the

means by which order of a pattern stimulates arousal leading to the attainment of

aesthetic pleasure. Thus, Berlyne formulated a thorough theory of the origin of

aesthetic pleasure and the characteristics of incitements that boost an aesthetic

reaction to the maximum. He named this theory the “New Experimental Aesthetics”.

To be specific, at its core is the proposition that, art triggers pleasure by operating on

arousal, which tends to affect humans’ attention, awareness, or enthusiasm.

Berlyne tried to determine the relationship between aesthetic pleasure and arousal as

follows:

The arousal theory states that aesthetic pleasure can be attained both by an arousal

“boost”, a mild rise of arousal until the peak, or by an arousal “jag”, a sudden upsurge

in arousal surpassing the peak after which pleasure is released once arousal is

lessened.

2.3.3 The Aesthetic-Arousal Methods’ Arrangements

The arousal theory states that artists may control the aesthetic-arousal by two diverse

methods. First, by utilizing common consistent arrangements, like those that are very

symmetric, in order to attain an arousal boost. Second, by utilizing new, shocking, or

complicated arrangements, which are hard to initially understand, in order to attain an

arousal jag. Additionally, a complicated arrangement, like an irregular arrangement,

consisting of various shapes, provokes ambiguity in the observer, and this is

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associated with a severe surge of arousal. Since one of the essential urges in humans

is to discover things to fulfill their curiosity, the observer is then stimulated to

discover the arrangement until they comprehend it. Thus, this integration and

subsequent ambiguity is complemented by a decline in arousal, which is felt as

pleasure.

2.3.4 The Aesthetic-Arousal Preference on the Patterns’ Complexity

Moving on to patterns that are used to test aesthetic preference, in view of the arousal

theory, two types of arrangements will be felt as extremely pleasurable: the patterns

that are slightly complicated, which result in medium arousal augmentation, and the

fairly complicated patterns, which are sufficiently complicated to be able to increase

arousal briskly but not to the extent of them never being understood.

When observing the least complicated arrangements repetitively, observers stated that

they gradually generated less pleasure. Consequently, the observers found that these

arrangements were uninteresting. Meanwhile, when looking at the more complicated

arrangements, observers stated that they became more appealing at first and then

started to decrease pleasure generation. These patterns, which were not understood,

engendered more and more pleasure until they were totally assimilated, and only then

did they become boring.

Therefore, due to the findings Berlyne’s study, one can infer that when arrangements

become more complicated, interest will increase and reach a climax, until it then

starts to decrease. In sum, complicated arrangements provoke a longer observing

period than simpler ones.

Furthermore, Berlyne (1964) stated that:

The arrangements from rank one to rank three prompt progressively longer viewing

periods. These conclusions reinforce the belief that complicated patterns increase

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arousal via the ambiguity they produce; the observer is then persuaded to discover the

arrangement until he comprehends it (Berlyne, p.58).

Daniel Berlyne in the arousal theory suggested that the extent of aesthetic-arousal

depended on the significance of the catalyst. This states that people’s satisfaction

from a state of arousal is dependent on the significance that they ascribe to the

inciting catalyst. The point is that people might gain satisfaction from the unease they

experience when looking at a picture, but ache from the same amount of unease

generated by a traumatic incident projected in an artwork.

Berlyne noted after the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud in Trois Essais sur

la Theorie Sexuelle (1989). Freud worked very hard to reveal the relationship

between the world of art and fantasy created by the dreamer. Nevertheless, he

stressed the distinctiveness of aesthetic pleasure, as one may prefer artworks that

express attitudes or suppressed feelings in one’s own personality. Moreover, they

might even find in art what is forbidden in their own reality, repressed sexuality or

aggression, which is highly controlled on the surface but extremely vivid in art that is

unrestrained, violent or even erotic.

Sigmund Freud, in Trois Essais sur la Théorie Sexuelle (1989),

Freud stated that the expression of human being’s perception of behaviors, and ideas

that are often regarded as deviant and taboo. For example, nudity, love, intimacy, sex,

aggression and relationships with parents, represented in paintings and sculptures is

manifested in many different ways. The findings inferred that people who preferred

nudity embodied calmness, restrained colors and control, in contrast to the subjects

who declined the nudes who were attracted to stimulating colors, drama, aggression,

pain and ecstasy. These findings challenge the arousal theory, which maintains that

arousal is universally sought in art. Thus, this leads us to the discussion of the

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relationship between aesthetics and erotic art.

2.4. Erotic art

Here we shall discover the relationship between aesthetics and erotic art. According

to Juan David Nasio le livre de la douleur et de l‘amour (2003.p.65) aesthetic-erotic

art is the psychological influence of the erotic elements in art and its reflection on

aesthetic pleasure, as well as the kind of pleasure provided by the contemplation of an

erotic artwork, that is a triple pleasure: a narcissistic, a physical and a mental desire.

Furthermore, Nasio inferred that the electrical action in the prefrontal cortex contains

uncommon neurons that are "tuned" for sex. Moreover, he found a connection

between a subject's reactions to erotic pictures related with various enthusiastic

implications, and the brain’s reaction to classified visual sensual pictures was related

with reward and delight, and additionally sexual aggravations.

Finally, Kelley L. Ross (2014) in "The Erotic as an Aesthetic Category “ agrees with

the recognition of aesthetics and highlights beauty as being a subjective reaction to

morality and immorality. She believes this reflects the viewer’s cultural and spiritual

background, without any recognition of beauty standards. Rather, Ross asserts that

the erotic varies since what one finds erogenous and beautiful relies upon one's own

pre-disposition.

The following section will analyze numerous factors regarding the elements of

eroticism and how it is scientifically verified. This acknowledges the brain, the

sensual system’s activity and how it relates to aesthetic-erotic art reactions in both

men and women, while viewing erotic elements, through assessing different research

studies and theories developed by Juan David Nasio, and Kelley L. Ross.

As a start, Nasio defines erotic elements as follows:

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Narcissistic pleasure is the aim of having feelings and experiencing aesthetic pleasure

and that are evoked by specific pieces of erotic art. Therefore, if the work of art is

erotic, it ought to be considered a piece of their sexual universe. Physical pleasure is

the experience of the erotic tensions in the body, whereas mental pleasure is

expanding the work of art through one’s creative ability while visualizing the sensual

picture.

In this way, the viewer will mentally create a representation of their inner sexual and

erotic world, which will later on create sexual excitement. Thus, the artist emphasizes

that in the work of art the pleasure of contemplation is in the eyes of the beholder.

2.4.1 Sexual Creativity

Moreover, Nasio infers that the genuine erogenous region of the body is the brain. In

addition to that, the brain designs fantasies that fortify such excitation. The reasoning

behind these two factors is that awareness of sexual excitation comes first, and then

the act of focusing on the erotic scenario of the contemplated piece of art, and

consequently the formation of sexually exciting dreams, implying that eroticism is a

result of suggestion rather than presentation. Likewise, Nasio emphasizes that it is not

exposition that is erotic. Erotic art is interactive, a play between aspects, the veiled

and the hidden. In human nature these two opposing aspects are the essence of sexual

excitation.

It is an urgent call for the imagination, and that is descended always in the mind. In

illustration, one of Nasio’s artwork attracts the viewer to permeate the very essence of

his creative abilities. A woman appears half naked, stimulating in the spectator the

wonderful illusion that she is going to offer him her body, which is as much exciting

as the cuddles preceding the sexual act” (Nasio, 2014, p.24).

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2.4.2. Stimulation

Juan David Nasio established that the main stimulator of longing is the eye. In men,

desire dependably goes through the channel of the eye, more than via sexual organs. In

women, aspects are more intricate and unobtrusive, as the base of craving in a woman

might be the ear, women might be irritated by the enchantment of a male voice, and

this base may likewise be touched. Yet above all, the intellectual abilities of men,

expressiveness, control, aspiration, delicate assurance and perception, the strongest

desire is located in the eyes.

Proceeding onwards, we shall investigate the article "Erotic image elicits strong for

brain" composed by Jim Dryden in 2006. It presents the unexplored neutral territory

of sex and the neurobiological and neuroanatomical mechanism that strengthens it.

To conclude, the study suggests that brain is quickly "turned on" and "tuned in" when

the spectator sees erotic pictures.

This brain map shows differences in reactions to erotic and neural visual material.

Red zones represent the largest differences, suggesting that circuits in the frontal part

of the brain are particularly sensitive to erotic content and the fastest to detect the

differences” (Dryden, 2006, p56).

2.4.3 How Brains Process Erotic Images

Dryden based his research on results from Washington University School of Medicine,

which included a number of women who were exposed to a progression of different

scenes from couples in sexual postures. According to Dryden:

When volunteers viewed erotic pictures, their brains produced electric responses that

were stronger than those elicited by other material that was viewed, no matter how

pleasant or disturbing the other material may have been. This difference in brain

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wave response emerged very quickly, suggesting that different neural circuits may be

involved in the processing of erotic images” (Drelyn, 2006, p47.).

Hence, the results were impressive, as the participants believed that viewing both

disturbing and pleasant pictures resulted in an immediate reaction, yet erotic scenes

incited the strongest reactions.

Kelley L. Ross's 2014 investigation "The Erotic as an Aesthetic Category" highlights

the erotic and reveals its purpose. Ross demonstrates that the erotic does not need to

be identified against any beauty standards. Rather, Ross asserts that the erotic varies

and what one person finds erogenous relies upon that person's inclinations. Ross

suggests that an important characteristic of the erotic is its capacity to change

between the moral and immoral, and additionally through hedonism. Therefore, the

erotic is both in the form of an illustration and of a reaction (Ross, 2014, p.13).

Additionally, the purpose of the erotic is to excite sexually. The response varies from

slight excitement to the most extreme forms and numerous different excitement

combinations. Moreover, Ross stated, in his article “The Erotic as an Aesthetic

Category”, that the erotic (whether as a reaction or as an illustration) has a double

existence. The first is the “intuitive value”, that is satisfaction, as the outcome of

sexual reaction, stimulation, and intercourse. The second existence is targeting

aesthetic characteristics. The erotic is an inherent characteristic since people’s bodies

exhibit sexual divergences mainly acquired at adolescence, involving the

development of primary sex organs, which are distinguished during fetus

development, and whose appearance likely provokes erotic reactions and are the basis

of all erotic illustrations. Where pleasure seeking, known as hedonism, represses

sexual illustration, the initial exposition of erotic sex differences may be repressed

too, with clothing or objects such as a hijab or shawl for females. Additionally, a

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man’s figure can be hidden, such as in the judgment of some Islamic rulers, which

stated that pants on men are a vulgar representation.

2.4.4 Reflection

As a reflection on the above theories, we may notice that the erotic is explained as a

state of arousal, per Juan David Nasio, Jum Drylen, and Kelley Ross who claimed

that the viewer is enjoying the erotic arousal as an observer’s activity instead of one

that needs contribution and participation. Thus the idea that it is worthy to the

spectator, and thus why it is considered an aesthetic trait. Of greater significance, the

core of the aesthetic is that it is worthy in itself. If the erotic is an issue of the

beautiful and the sublime, this gives it aesthetic prestige. Erotic literatures could

therefore certain to discover each possible opportunity, together with the option that

some may view as them as unpleasant, as well as that include enough arousal

potential.

Finally, after discussing the link between aesthetic reactions and erotic elements, we

find that the previous writings and statements have explained eroticism, and thus we

can value human eroticism philosophically with a focus on the aesthetics of sexual

desire and sensuality, where the word “erotic” stands for superior values, fine art, and

aesthetic sexuality that arouses the mind and unconditionally stimulates the body.

In our last part of this chapter, we will address the theory of “Postmodern Concepts of

the Body” by Linden Meyer in Jeanette Winterson’s 1993 novel Written on the Body.

The novel offers positive ways to theorize the female body within a postmodern

framework. This novel inspired the essence of my artwork production in this thesis,

since it is where I originally harvested my key concept and inputs for my erotic

abstract paintings, as well as my registered 3D sensual art gallery.

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2.5 Erotic concepts used in my art

production

According to Jeanette Winterson’s post-modern concepts in Written on the Body

(1994), the body is one of the main pillars in relation to the pleasure theory of the

erotic elements, which I implemented in my own art production, to illustrate my

given hypothesis. Winterson is perturbed by the concept of heterosexuality by

introducing a narrator of many sexual identities; she also shows that postmodernism

and romance can mix by combining a virtual narrator with a romantic narrative.

Winterson uses the concepts of romance to weaken the “discourse of authenticity”

even though postmodernism did not usually mix with romantic love. She did so by

splitting the firm personality and by cutting away all bodily boundaries (by describing

the drowning effect in the beloved). Winterson does not consider love as an illusion,

which results in the creation of a virtual character claiming reality.

In addition, a hollow simulation of what is already written has been sarcastically

described in the book by the ‘virtual’ world. On the other hand, assuming that the

narrative is a ‘virtual’ space, gives the characters the possibility to change everything

around them according to the moment in which they find themselves. Thus, when the

narrator made love in the attic room, this room became a magical ‘virtual’ space.

What Winterson changed about postmodernism is the concept where what seemed to

be firm and stable about the body became fluid and changeable, and the greatest

importance is accorded to the movable boundaries instead of the interiors. A very

romantic commitment to love nourishes the desire to use bodies and spaces for

something other than an imitation of the real world that is to create something totally

new.

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What is more, in her novel Written on the Body (1994), Winterson tackles feminist

theories, where she clearly criticizes androcentric science and its damaging way of

exploring and dissecting the female body. Likewise, Winterson permeates the fixed

boundaries and gendered identities, she rejects all concepts of wholeness and body

parts single-handedly, but rather she joins them in a new fluid body concept that is

able to change and is oriented by connection within its parts or with other bodies.

Similarly, the fact that a narrator does not necessarily need a gendered in order to be

understood, it is possible to create a theory of the female body that does not treat it as

a victim of society but as a multitude of parts joined together, not only by the natural

bonds, but also by connective forces.

Consequently, when one tries to integrate the theory, discussed previously, into

practical work, the following feminist approach to these notions is implemented.

Where the focus is on a coherent body image that can be formed and then inflicted on

body parts, thus emphasizing the integrity of feminine body concepts on canvas,

using the following five post-modern concepts: The Wholeness and Fragmentation

Concept of the Body at the Same Time, The Concept of Sexuality Associated with

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Penetration, The Fluidity and Permeability concept of the body, Romantic

Conventions of Boundaries, and the storyteller ambiguous gender concept.

Hence the end result will be discussed in my next chapter, where eroticism is

embedded on canvas using specific art techniques and color movement that may

induce aesthetics, whether the experience achieved gives pleasure or not.

PART TWO: RESEARCH METHOD, PAINTING TECHNIQUE, AND

PRACTICAL WORK PRODUCTION.

METHEDOLOGY

3.1. Introduction

The purpose of this section is to present the methodologies, techniques and the

practical utilization of theories that are the primary modes of elaboration and support

of the hypothesis. Thus, one of the main aims of this project research is to study the

erotic elements described throughout the ages and analyze different artworks.

The research was conducted through using various psychological theories, which will

bridge the artist to the viewer. The thesis makes a correspondence between theories,

paintings, and signs, in regards to the concept of the effect of erotic elements in

paintings on the aesthetic context of the viewer while perceiving a piece of art.

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Furthermore, my project/research began with the intention of being descriptive, but

during the course of the research it ended up being comparative, where my work was

compared and contrasted to various concepts found in Winterson’s novel.

Therefore, the aim of this empirical research is to understand that the field of erotic

art and paintings are correlated when put into practice with the erotic fantasies, using

specific painting techniques.

3.2 Research Strategy and Painting techniques

Several methodologies and painting techniques will be presented in order to reveal

erotic aesthetic reactions in my practical work.

First, I based my whole project / research on two basic psychological theories which

are Apter’s “Reversal Theory” and Berlyne’s “Arousal Theory”, hence I relate my

practical work to Jeanette Winterson’s novel Written on the Body.

The Reversal theory is a theory of personality, motivation and emotion as defined in

the field of psychology. It focuses on human experiences in order to describe how a

person reverses between a psychological state and reflecting meaning on given

situations.

Moreover, the Arousal theory is a psychological and physiological state of being

stimulated. It involves a trigger to brain activity leading to a state of excitement or

anxiety.

Both these theories are subjective and are based on the viewer’s personal experiences,

which lead to either a pleasurable or dis-pleasurable understanding of art. However, in

what follows we shall focus on the pleasurable understanding of art.

Besides the historical and psychological references, I found concrete basic concepts

mentioned in Chapter I and chapter II; that relate my practical work to the already

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achieved work of Jeanette Winterson’s novel Written on the Body. I implemented the

six following postmodern concepts of Winterson. First, I show the wholeness and

fragmentation concept of the body at the same time. Second, the androcentric concept

of sexuality associated with penetration is traced. Third, the permeability and

impermeability concept of the body is visible. Fourth, the relation of a coherent body

to another body concept may be identified. Fifth the romantic conventions of

boundaries concept are clearly depicted, and finally the erotic of sameness concept

sign my work. Following are two painting techniques used to merge all my findings in

my practical artwork.

3.2.1 Painting techniques

My Practical work production and art techniques were implemented by utilizing two

different techniques:

x The first techniques used no paint brushes where my fingers prints integrated

Van Gogh’s stokes of colors palettes, layers, movements to integrate Jeanette

Winterson’s erotic concepts.

x The second technique was an implementation of Jeanette Wintersons erotic

concepts in a new method called Pouring Painting technique.

3.2.1.1 The first technique

The first methods and tools of production, I used in my paintings to show my

practical work, were inspired by the famous Van Gogh painter. According to the

method using by Lydia Vagts, she infers in her video in 2015 that Van Gogh’s

painting techniques used thick layers of paint, strokes of colors, and creating a series

of circular movements. We came across the knowledge of the exceptional neo-

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impressionist artist that the materials used by the painter were traditional pure oil

paints but the techniques made its exceptional outcome, where thick layers of paint

made no trace of fabrics, different painted layers on top of the other ground layer,

were revealed by X-Rays done on the canvas showing a series of circles, strokes of

colors by paint brushes, no sketches under the drawing techniques, a grid

composition, and mostly a thickness of painted layers and natural ingredients traces

such as leaves and dust as the paintings were constructed primary in nature and then

finalized in Van Gogh studio.

As an implementation of Van Gogh techniques, my practical work adopted four major

concepts elements such as, colors, contrast, movement, and natural added mixed

media. After a visit to the Van Gogh museum, in Amsterdam, I came across a notion

about the movement and brush stocks that made Van Gogh’s artwork so exceptional. I

noticed that there was an individual sense of the movement of the artist’s hands with

the brush as he made the stocks vertically and horizontally with the wet paints over

dried layer paint. This technique allowed Van Gogh to handle thick paint strokes and

blending of some colors. However, he often used pure colors to designate shadows for

a background movement. Moreover, I integrated some of the naturally mixed media

in my paintings. I poured and mixed with paint to enhance a textured and thick paint

surface, and to validate a feeling of nostalgia and skepticism to an era of impressionist

painters.

3.2.1.2 The first second

In the past 2 years, I have developed new creative painting techniques, called pouring

painting techniques. The cups were the tools instead of painting brushes, as for the

material used is acrylic paint and adding to it specific materials such as fluid

mediums, silicon and soap.

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 x The fluid medium is mixed with acrylic paint to make it more fluid. The

medium is called Floetrol liquid; such an addition to acrylic paint made it

more fluid.

x The silicon oil medium is mixed with the Floetrol liquid mix with acrylic paint

to create cells on canvas.

Using my new findings in my practical work made me realize the value of how the

literature reviews, had helped me to pour paint on canvas integrating the five erotic

concepts of Jeanette Winterson’s novel as follows:

First, I mixed the Floetrol medium with acrylic paint using Van Gogh’s color pallets into

small cups, each color by itself.

Second, I added to each cup silicon oil drops in each cup of acrylic pouring paint mixture,

to give a cells effect in paint.

Third, I added one color mixture at a time into a large cup. Inspired by Van Gogh’s layers

methods.

Fourth, I started pouring the big cup in a circular movement with the mixture of colors

referring to The Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body, visualizing that the

body is manifested in the big cup, the layer of paint integrated the fragmentation of the

body into many parts summing up with a wholeness circular effect of the body.

Moreover, The Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration, The Fluidity and

Permeability concept of the body, was the magical visualization of the mixture of colors

flowing and penetrating the canvas space, such flow of fluid paint gave the effect of the

color pallet to merge and be permeable together creating fascinating secondary colors

mixtures.

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Furthermore, the Silicon oil mixture emphasized the Romantic Conventions of Boundaries

concept, where we started perceiving newborn cells emerging on the surface of the canvas.

Last but not least, the visualization of such merge of colors in independent shells is an

astonishing effect of creation, introduced the last erotic Concept, The Storyteller

Ambiguous Gender where skepticism and ambiguity is the muse of the moment.

Next, I used the spinning painting technique, where I constructed a table with a spinning

metal top, where I attached my canvas on the top, while the paint is still wet, the result of

spinning the canvas perceived a circular movement, a merge of all colors, and cells into a

wholeness, penetrative, fluid, permeable, romantic, and yet ambiguous effect.

Finally, I added female and masculine painted Body prints on the dry canvas, to highlight

the body sexual parts to trigger nostalgic aesthetic reactions.

Such a technique will be demonstrated live at the thesis defense to the jury member, and a

demonstration video will be attached to the hard copy in addition to a movie that visualize

my paintings in a virtual art gallery.

3.3 Presence of major erotic concepts in my practical work

In the previous chapter I presented erotic fantasies and the link between the aesthetic

reactions and how they are related to the erotic elements in abstract art. Above all, we

discovered that the erotic is described as a state of arousal, and has an aesthetic

reaction, resulting in a hedonic sensation. For this reason, I designed a 3D virtual

erotic art gallery, named “ My Lady in Red”, painted a series of erotic paintings’ for

an exhibition, named “ Fire on the Floor”, in order to induce hedonic sensations in the

viewers who encountered my artwork. I will share my painting techniques, influenced

by the painter Vincent Van Gogh, and deciphering my adopted theoretical

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implementation of The Theory of Postmodern Concepts of the Body (1993) by

Jeanette Winterson in her novel, Written on the Body.

In what follows, I will outline what influenced my practical work in this project-

research. First the technical influence of Vincent Van Gogh, second the theoretical

implementation of Jeanette Winterson’s ideas in her novel Written on the Body

(1993), and consequently introducing the erotic paintings exhibition “ Fire on the

Floor” at “ My Lady in Red” virtual art gallery.

3.3.1 The technical influence of Vincent Van Gogh

I will introduce the methods and tools of production for my series of erotic paintings.

The complementary colors used by Van Gogh were integrated into my paintings such

as, ochre yellow, ochre red, burned sienna, and vermillion. The contrasting colors

were used to enhance the effects, such as using orange along with green, shadowing

purple versus blue, enhanced with dark background colors such as earth tones, as seen

in some of Van Gogh’s paintings. In contrast, brighter colors such as zinc white,

chrome emerald green, silver chrome, and lilac shed light on the surface of the

canvas.

After a visit to The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, I wondered about the movement

and brush strokes that made Van Gogh’s artwork so exceptional, the individual sense

of the movement of the artist’s hands with the brush as he made the strokes, vertically

and horizontally with the wet paints over dried layer paint, handling thick paint

strokes where some colors blended but often pure colors designating shadows of a

background movement. Finally, integrating some natural mixed media in my painting

I poured and mixed with paint to enhance textures of a thick paint surface, and to

create a feeling of nostalgia and skepticism for the era of impressionist painters.

Likewise, Lydia Vagts infers in her video in 2015 that Van Gogh’s painting

ͷͲ

techniques used thick layers of paint, strokes of colors, to create a series of circular

movements.

3.3.2 The theoretical implementation of Jeanette Winterson’s ideas

The theory of Postmodern Concepts of the Body by Jeanette Winterson's Written on

the Body is theoretically implemented in my practical artwork. Winterson proposed in

her theory a perception of the female figure in a postmodern base. I integrated the

following five concepts into my paintings and virtual art gallery. The Wholeness and

Fragmentation Concept of the Body at the Same Time, The Concept of Sexuality

Associated with Penetration, The Fluidity and Permeability Concept of the Body,

Romantic Conventions of Boundaries, and The Storyteller Ambiguous Gender

Concept.

Likewise, I created an erotic paintings exhibition “ Fire on the Floor” at the virtual art

gallery “ My Lady in Red”, by visualizing an animated movie of my erotic paintings

exhibition, “ Fire on the Floor” at the 3D virtual art gallery,“ My Lady in Red”, the

viewer may perceive the gallery’s concept from an Ariel mode, a perception of a

woman’s figure elongated on her side, along with the 3D interior space. The shape of

the gallery is felt as a red rubber inflated balloon, which is the color of love and

passion. Consequently, the visitors may experience an erotic escape, a voyage

exploring erotic artworks through history. The purpose of the gallery is to show erotic

art forms of different centuries and cultures, through Egypt, Europe, India and Gothic

puritanism, the orientalist era, modernist era until our postmodern era.

In conclusion, I can show through my practical techniques and color movements, as

concepts inspired by Winterson’s ideas in the novel, that embedded signs may trigger

nostalgic aesthetics, and further infer on my hypothesis: “If aesthetic arousal is

achieved through the genre of erotic paintings that revolve around practical

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techniques and color movements, then pleasure can be achieved as a result of the

nostalgic feeling.”

In what follows, we will see how the five concepts generated from Jeanette

Winterson’s novel Written on the Body (1993) merged with my own paintings,

explaining the correlation between them.

3.3.2.1 The Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body

Referring to Jeannette Winterson’s Written on the Body, we introduce the first

postmodern concept integrated in the following series of erotic paintings, combing

both the wholeness and fragmentation concept simultaneously. Above all, the body

image is an entity held together, influenced by an interaction between body parts.

Similarly, Winterson suggested that the body is shaped by concepts of wholeness and

fragmentation at the same time. In her novel, Written on the Body, sexuality depended

on connections between different body parts shown in the sexual encounters

described between the narrator and the lover character.

Furthermore, the notion of wholeness and fragmentation of the body can be analyzed

in a spiritual wholeness state. The same rule holds true in ones’ psycho-spiritual

development, since due to our upbringing, culture and own reflective subconscious

minds, we are conditioned to believe in certain things, thus we develop faulty beliefs,

resulting in various versions of reality. In order to become familiar with what we

consider as truth, one needs to be whole to oneself, which happens through

meditation. The core of healing is to bring awareness to our senses by separating

illusion from fragmentation, hence this awareness facilitates healing and wholeness.

Similarly, Bohme also added:

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What is needed is for man to give attention to his habit of fragmentary thought, to be

aware of it, and thus bring it to an end. Man's approach to reality may then be whole,

and so the response will be whole (Bohme, 1980, p.7).

I implemented the first concept in the novel through a selection of paintings. The

wholeness and fragmentation of the body at the same time may be implemented in

paintings to achieve erotic arousal on aesthetic grounds. With regard to my practical

work, I integrated the Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body at the

Same Time, initiating a unique technique of mixing primary colors in layers with

ochre gold and silver showing a fragmentation of strokes of paints with an introverted

movement showing wholeness. The paintings are named: Aura Sagrada, Ecstasy, I

am sensitive, “L'Inconscient”, and “Amos”. One pursues his/her own unity with his

sacred Aura in “Aura Sagrada”, an inner self senses, an occurrence of a voyage in an

unconscious journey is apparent in “L'Inconscient”, self-awareness follows a better

present after a defragmentation of a past shown in “Ecstasy” of a whole body at the

same time, a wholeness of a feminine figure along with a fragmented background

concept is evident in “Amos” and “the Ego” paintings.

Aura Sagrada
As a survivor of a stressful life, I directed me to recover my own inner unity, and

peace of mind by practicing yoga and meditation for many years. Consequently, I

experienced the wholeness and fragmentation of thoughts. The concept inspired by

Jeanette Winterson’s to start my voyage, by pouring and mixing different shades of

copper and ochre gold, representing my own Aura, a sacred art painting reflecting the

tantric era in the civilization in India encountered in the history chapter, adding a gold

and ochre color of an upward and inward movement, signifying a sense of awareness,

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and wholeness after the defragmentation of a dark purple background. Similarly,

wholeness with the earth energy was inspired by Barbara Bowers’, what color is your

aura? (1989), silver colors in a wavy movement separating wholeness from

fragmentation, hence laying my sacred Aura on canvas. In conclusion, I revealed my

sacral chakra, which represents my sexual energy point, with a luminous silver, and

gold glint.

“Aura Sagrada”, Mixed Media (120 X 100).

L'Inconscient
L'Inconscient is a fusion of dark purple, cyan blue and green represented in a circular

movement that opens up at the bottom of the canvas, a mixed media painting after

psychoanalysis sessions named EMDR, a way to get in touch with our unconscious, a

pathway less traveled, facing my inner fears. Agreeing with Madhu Khanna, in The

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Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity (1979), who revealed that painting circles are the

main characteristics of mandalas; signs to center our wholeness. In “L'Inconscient”, a

circular movement manifests sexual chakra point wholeness in the upper space of the

canvas. Yet in the following painting called “Ecstasy” the canvas may reveal

wholeness after a state of fragmentation. Especially when perceiving a circular flow

of dots in various colors and shades, along with an inner movement to the center.

Consequently, it reveals the moment of ecstasy, that one pursuit in the sexual act.

“L'Inconscient”, mixed media (120 X 100)

Ecstasy

“Ecstasy” mixed media (60 X 80), leads us to a state of self-awareness, a de-

fragmentation of thoughts exposed in primary colors such as red, green and yellow,

and embodies circular movement shapes. The dark purple background embodies the

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wholeness of fragmented shapes, while at the extremity, a wholeness of painted

strokes move into a harmonically splendid union. Hence, after perceiving the shades

and movement, one may interpret the longing for sexual orgasm, in the form of

ecstasy.

“Ecstasy”, mixed media (60 X 80)

Amos

Posing as an inner movement inspired by our galaxy Andromeda, and a single drop of

water on planet Mars, placed in a silver wholeness movement at the center of the

painting, surrounded by a gold ochre feminine figure, in an erotic posture, the concept

of unity merges between lively copper red colors blended in passionate shades of

shiny silver, navy blue and pink. Such a unity in the center of the canvas merges with

a fragmented background shown in the strokes and paint layers. These may

emphasize the wholeness and the fragmented body. For this reason, the wholeness

and fragmentation of the body occur at the same time, in Amos, to achieve erotic

arousal on aesthetic grounds.

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“Amos”, mixed media (120 X 100)

The Ego

This is my last representation of the first concept related to Jeanette Winterson’s

novel. The wholeness and fragmentation concept of the body simultaneously may be

shown in the series of paintings called “The Ego” where a pure manifestation of an

erotic central, rounded shaped, feminine movement merges with an opening in a

movement of painted layers of primary and reflective colors such as red, aqua blue,

yellow and silver. After integrating several colors, shades, movements and brush

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stroke techniques, we may sense a three-dimensional movement, as if the canvas is

alive and swirling.

“The Ego”, mixed media (60 x 70)

The second concept related to Jeanette Winterson’s novel, Written on the Body, is the

Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration. After decoding the erotic concept

of penetration, the viewer may achieve hedonic sensations, and aesthetic nostalgia

arousal.

3.3.2.2 The Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration.

The Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration is our second adopted concept

implemented in my artwork, theoretically inspired by Jeanette Winterson’s Written on

the Body. First the author attempts to experience his/her partner’s body as a voyage of

discovery, where this idea relates to the concept of a virgin female body waiting for a

male to explore it. Second, the narrator gives both main characters equality and keeps

the balance between them, as a woman’s vagina is penetrable as well as a man’s anus

is.

Related to Chapter I, over the generations, history combined the concepts of gender

divergence where artists only focused on the power of female sensuality and sexuality

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in erotic artwork. The idea of joining the power of female/masculine sensuality and

sexuality has been adopted and practiced in our postmodern era. Earlier erotic

artwork heroines were described, as ‘repressed’, ‘obscured’, and images were male-

centered. Today, however, there is an increasing interest in real-life female heroines

and feminists surpassing men in erotic artworks. Moreover, the relationship between

women and men involves mutual reliance, which Rand stated here:

Leash is only a rope at both ends, both master and slave can benefit from breaking a

gender –role prison; they would lose their separate role perks, but they would

collaborate in the process of dismantling the polarization that has cropped them

(Rand, 1980, p.34).

For this reason, the time is ripe for the ideal sensuous woman, the conqueror, as a

fully realized equal erotic image to men. Above all, Winterson gave men and women

the same advantages, and kept the balance between them, as both genders are

penetrable. I have composed a selection of paintings in order to show sexuality

associated with penetration in an erotic state and with its aesthetic veil. As a result,

while looking at the following paintings: “Invasion”, “Scroll after me”, “Porte de

L’Amour”, “Flamas de Vidas”, “Woman Earth”, “Déchirure” and “L'Oublie”, the

viewer may enjoy the flow of painted layers and perceive the penetrative movement

concept embedded in both genders, where hedonic sensation may reveal itself.

Invasion

My canvas named “Invasion” is the first representation of the Concept of Sexuality

Associated with Penetration, which aims to show hedonic sensations. The penetration

concept is portrayed in cyan blue, navy hues, red, and copper blush, and we may

sense a rhythmic movement of the invasion of a phallus’s conquest, escorting a flash

of an infinite energies, in a rhythmic penetrative pattern. In contrast the viewer may

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sense, a feminine or a masculine penetrative movement with the flow of paint, colors

and techniques inspired by Van Gogh, and may finally experience erotic hedonic

sensations.

“Invasion”, Acrylic (60 x 90)

Scroll after me

“Scroll after me” is my second representation of the Concept of Sexuality Associated

with Penetration. This is a phallus concept of male domination, with inward moves,

also signified on my canvas. It is a penetrative quest towards erotic pleasure,

imbedded in a reptile creature. An integration of copper gold paint and green algae is

surrounded with dark purple. This is an attempt to represent male sexuality

associated with penetration, masked in earth colors.

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“Scroll after me”, mixed media (30 x 150)

Porte de L’Amour

“Porte de L’Amour” is the third representation of the Concept of Sexuality

Associated with Penetration, a blend of red and pink shades in a wavy movement on

canvas with an assumed aim at sensuality. The primary colors of red, magenta pink,

silver-shaded canvas, is an invitation to the feminine and sensual vigor, where the

viewer may be triggered by the red shades of an ambiguous surrounding of a masked

sexuality representing female genitals.

“Porte De L’Amour”, mixed media (60 x 30)

Woman Earth
“Woman Earth” is the fourth representation of the Concept of Sexuality Associated

with Penetration. Like in the previous painting, it signifies the woman figure,

nonetheless, the ambiguous silhouette in ochre gold and copper yellow colors, with

descending brown and black waves, centered by a penetrable mass shape, may

engender a sense of an invasive flow. Yet hedonic eroticism may emerge from the

contemplation of the piece.

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“Woman Earth”, mixed media (90 x 30)

Flamas de Vidas

“Flamas de Vidas” is another representation of the Concept of Sexuality Associated

with Penetration, a skeptical and ambiguous impression laid down on canvas. It uses

a mixture of silver, ochre, and reds of ascending versus descending moves, in contrast

to a flow of energy composed in a multitude of my own palette of colors, performing

the effect of penetration where the Concept of Sexuality Associated with Penetration

is female as well as masculine. Consequently, an erotic sensation may generate

hedonic aesthetics, after decoding the ambiguous erotic ascending and descending

movements embraced in the colors of passions and lust.

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“Flamas de Vidas”, mixed media (120 x 100)

Déchirure and L’oublie

“Déchirure”, and “L’oublie” is a painting which manifests the movement of

penetration associated with a sense of fluidity, associated with a flow of painted

layers, approaching the concept of fluidity yet in a penetrative way, embedded in a

solid black mass of thick painted acrylic layers, molding the scene with cyan blue and

silver shades. Consequently, the aim is an erotic hedonic reaction from the viewer

after interpreting the penetration and flow of paint embedded on the canvas.

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“Déchirure”, mixed media (30 x 70)

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“L’Oublie”, mixed media (40 x 30)

3.3.2.3 The Fluidity and Permeability concept of the body

The concept of body fusion and permeability is our third adopted concept in

implementing a series of paintings after the reading of Written on the Body. The

author, Winterson, introduces the personality splits by describing the drowning effect

in a beloved. Winterson did not consider love as an illusion, which results in the

creation of a virtual character claiming his/her own reality. In addition, a simulation

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of what is already written has been described by the ‘virtual’ world. On the other

hand, assuming that the narrative is a ‘virtual’ space, Winterson gives the characters

the possibility to change everything around them according to the moment they are

in. Consequently, when the narrator and her partner made love in the attic room, this

room became their magical ‘virtual’ space. What Winterson in her novel, Written on

the Body, changed about postmodernism is how in terms of the body concept where

what seemed to be firm and stable became fluid and permeable, and the greatest

importance is accorded to the movable boundaries instead of the interiors. In the same

way, in Winterson’s novel, the body of the main character presents fusion and

permeability, showing a figure floating on the river. In addition, the colors given in

the description which are red and white signifies the life-giving fluids of the female

body.

Consulting Carl Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1968), it is

possible to signify that our bodily coherent concept is initiated by our own archetypal

image and its correlation to other figures. This is highlighted in artists’ abstract

artworks. According to Jung, while artists stretch hidden erotic abstract forms, they

may covertly embed nostalgic and sensuous senses into the language of the present.

Likewise, Jung claimed that nostalgia, being one of the main pillars in the

postmodern era, occurs within an aesthetic- psychological experience, and that

pleasurable or un-pleasurable nostalgia for past journeys is memorable enough to be

narrated on canvas by artists.

For Jung, art and aesthetic pleasure go hand in hand. An interpretation of the painting

to follow could indicate that the whole erotic, fusion and permeability aesthetic

experience of the artwork could be seen, without consciously distinguishing its

particular structures. The observers may be detached from the real world, and thus

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can lose themselves in the art piece. For this reason, Jung stated that the observer

while experiencing aesthetic pleasure or displeasure in a certain contemplation of a

piece of art, will project a nostalgic sensation, due to the transfer of his own

archetypal image onto a ritual imagined in a painting. Concluding, we may embrace a

feeling of nostalgic aesthetic, expressed through a perception of a fusion of permeable

paint flow in the contours embodied on painted canvas. However, a mystical feel may

be experienced, since uncertainty is the main focus, so by decoding the shapes and

the wavy motions, a sensuous excitation may be triggered by nostalgia and brought to

the present moment, as subjectivity in art is crucial for aesthetic reactions.

According to Georgia Ivey Green, the symbol of water is fluid, enticing and luring

one into an ungraspable, promising, infinite paint adventure of pleasure. Ivey Green’s

book A Key Holder’s Handbook: A Woman’s Guide to Male Chastity (2013) reflects

on fluidity of movement in painting and its echo on pleasure and aesthetics.

We are instantly attracted to those who are fluid and more ambiguous than we are,

since they hint at a freedom we need for ourselves, they play with masculinity and

femininity, they fashion their own physical image, mysterious and elusive. (Green,

2013, p.76)

Fusion of the body as an idea is initiated in the following series mixed media

paintings: “Transparence”, “…et si l’on pouvait”,“ L’Alize”, “Riviere de Amour”,

“Escapade”, and “A Sereia”, through a fluid method, by pouring progressive acrylic

and mixed medias, in the face of doubt, such as the opacity of water effect may give a

significant meaning, revealing an act of hesitation through a celebration of colored

movements. Permeability is a state of absorptive concepts where shapes descend and

rest on real bases. Using tangible textiles may create an aesthetic feel to decoding the

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female figure embedded on canvas, whether the hedonic sensation is pleasurable or

unpleasant.

Besides fluidity, the permeable concept may reflect the sensuous conscious awareness

of the artist; it may be motivated by personal experience of watching paint flow. In

my following paintings, a transparent concept is interpreted in a see-through ocean

colored dreams of an imaginary space, where embalmed figures originate in

embedded signs and become physical erotic matter. Adding to that, the following

paintings embrace human permeability, the universal fact of the unreal, the suggestive

characteristic of personified intrusions. These may be delicately embodied in the

following colors shown in ocean blue, turquoise green and shades of copper. Fluidity

in glistening silhouettes and contours may be liquored as an essential osmotic,

seductive, and membranous nature of the human erotic state of feeling.

The fourth concept from the theory behind Jeanette Winterson’s, Written on the Body,

is illustrated in the practical artwork series, which follows. Winterson romanticizes

the morbidity of death, and I generate erotic aesthetics as an end result.

“L’Alizee”, mixed media (60 x 90)

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“…et si l’on pouvait”, mixed media (30 x 60)

“Transparence”, mixed media (60x30)

“A Sereia”, Mixed Media (40 x 120)

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“Escapade”, mixed media (30 x 70)

“Notre petit Monde”, mixed media (30 x 70)

“Le Reveil”, mixed media (80 x 80)

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 “Riviere D’Amour”,‹š‡†‡†‹ƒȋͺͲšͺͲȌ


3.3.2.4 Romantic Conventions of Boundaries

Following the concept of body fusion and permeability, the concept of Romantic

Conventions of Boundaries is our fourth adopted concept, in implementing a series of

paintings after reading from Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body. According to

Winterson, romanticism is based in lost love and the love for a dying lover is a

perfect romance. For this reason, Winterson describes a person mourning the loss of

their beloved to an inevitable force; she romanticizes the morbidity of death.

However, the author nourishes the desire to use bodies and spaces for something

other than an imitation of the real world, to create something totally new.

Consequently, we decode the Romantic Conventions of Boundaries concept, where

Winterson emphasizes the strength of desire for a lost love, where ambiguity and

imagination simultaneously shows how women’s bodies are used to create a perfect

sensual romance.

If there were any one word to define Romanticism, it would be a contradiction.

Romanticism is in short, unity and multiplicity. It is fidelity to the particular, and also

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mysterious tantalizing vagueness of outline. It is beauty and ugliness. It is art for art’s

sake, and art as an instrument of social salvation. It is strength and weakness,

individualism and collectivism, purity and corruption, revolution and reaction, peace

and war, love of life and love of death (Isaiah Berlin, 2010, p64).

Isaiah Berlin’s main concept in Notes on meta-modern (2010), supports our Romantic

Conventions of Boundaries. Berlin understands romanticism as a sense rather than as

a system of thought, a deep feeling rather than a pattern. As a result, Berlin attempts

to turn the finite into the infinite. Similarly, the following painting descends towards

the Romantic Conventions of Boundaries in the form a romantic slope towards the

erotic and the tragic in order to enhance hedonistic feelings.

I reflect on the romantic boundaries concept from Winterson in my following series

of paintings: “Embraced passions”, “A Santa Diabolica”, “…Le non Dit”, “Flames of

passion”, “I am sensitive” and “La Louve”,” “In the 60’s”, and “Gloria”. The viewer

may detect mystery, and may embrace a feeling of romantic ambiguity, expressed

through a relationship between the faded feminine contours, and the dark layered

canvas embodied in the ivory black, copper red, ochre yellow, and silver. Moreover,

mystical feelings may occur, since uncertainty may be prevalent. Decoding the

shapes and wavy motion, a sensuous romantic/ tragic feel may be triggered, even

nostalgia, from a signified romantic message.

We shall lastly introduce the postmodern concept, integrated with my own practical

work and referred to as The Storyteller Ambiguous Gender Concept. After defining

diversions in sexual identity, and the non-gender identification of the narrator, we

may experience skepticism in decoding the gender ambiguity in the paintings.

Consequently, erotic aesthetics may be triggered.

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“Embraced Passions”, Mixed Media (30 x 60)

“Embraced Passions”, Mixed Media (60 x30)

“A Santa Diabolica”, mixed media (90 x 60)

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“…Le non Dit”, mixed media (90 x 60)

“Flames of passion”, acrylic (120 x 100)

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“I am sensitive”, acrylic (100 x 120)

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“La louve”, acrylic (100 x 120)

“In the 60’s”, mixed media (40 x150)

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“Gloria”, mixed media (30 x 90)

3.3.2.5 The Storyteller Ambiguous Gender Concept

Throughout Winterson’s novel Written on the Body, the location of the hole is crucial

in defining sexual identity, because a woman’s vagina is penetrable as well a man’s

anus. Such a gender ambiguous concept defines the sexual identity of a body by its

openings. However, the narrator can either be a man or woman and the text can be

interpreted from either perspective since the narrator never confirms any gender

specific genitals rendering sexual difference. Consequently, the story’s ambiguous

gender concept is our fifth adopted concept in implementing a series of paintings after

reading the novel. Winterson attributed various confusing personalities to her

genderless storyteller; one is a heterosexual male with a strong yearning for marriage

and heterosexuality; a second is a gay man who has various lovers; a third is an

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asexual person with a passion for married women; and the fourth is a lesbian, shown

as the classic romantic lover figure.

What is convincing about the storyteller non-gender identification concept is that

Winterson appears to be very familiar with both men and women’s affairs as though

the narrator could belong to either gender. Instead of clearly declaring the narrator’s

sexual category, we find that sexuality depends on connections between different

body parts without specifying gender, like the sexual encounter described between

the narrator and the lover. Hence, Winterson confuses the reader by playing on

numerous psychoanalytical concerns and maintaining the gender anonymity of the

narrator throughout the novel to manipulate the sense of confusion and skepticism.

This concept could imply either homosexuality or heterosexuality. Homosexuality is

characterized by same-sex desire. Heterosexuality is sexual desire for the opposite

sex. One may encounter a sign of sexual gender un-identification in my artwork,

which follows, or call them same-sex desire, in the series of paintings where we can

deconstruct the skepticism of the storyteller non-gender identification concept.

For instance, the surreal erotic artist, Jose Antonio Pandora Hernandez, painted

illogical views with vibrant precision and created strange beings with no gender

identification from everyday life, while developing painting techniques that allowed

the unconscious to express itself. Thus his work became more surreal and somber.

Eventually, Hernandez began to paint what he calls "The Errors of the Revolution”

and “The deterioration of Nostalgia”. In addition to many private collections, where

his surrealist works feature the element of surprise, with unexpected adjacent

elements, and no precise sequence of any gender identifications in his artwork.

In the first series of painting which follows the viewer may decode the sameness or

homosexuality concept by a perceiving new identical born stars in motion, covered by

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pink, white and purple shades, and earthy tones, masking new co-stars longing for

unique erotic identities of their own. In “Des Regards Jaloux”, “Population”, “Le

Mystere”, “Soupire”, “L’Univers en Moi”, and “…Et je tends vers toi”, the canvas

represents in silver blue, and dark Caribbean green shades- the ambiguity of a hidden

soul captured in a sexual identity of being that has desires for someone of the same

sex. Paint embodied on canvas to identify desire for sexual pleasure may denote

sexual alignment.

“Des Regards Jaloux” mixed media (100 x 120)

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“Population”, acrylic (60 x 90)

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“Le Mystere”, Mixed media (120 x 100)

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 “Soupire 1”, acrylic (90 x 60)

“Soupire 2”, acrylic (90 x 60)

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“L’Univers en Moi”, mixed media (60 x 90)

“Lueur”, acrylic (60 x 90)

“…et je tends vers toi”, mixed media (60 x 200)

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In what follows is the second series of erotic paintings. Heterosexuality may be

decoded (the sexual attraction to the other sex) as noted in the storyteller non-gender

identification concept from Winterson’s novel. Consequently, the viewer may

perceive both body prints on painted background canvas associating the body

feminine figure along with masculine shape to trigger the storyteller non-gender

identification concept ambiguity. This also applies to the last series of canvases called

“Ascending fire”. It may be able to decode skepticism from Written on the Body,

where the body prints on painted background emphasize a fusion of red shades with

yellow copper and blue hues. In conclusion, after decoding the signs of the storyteller

non-gender identification concept from the novel, the viewer may encounter an erotic,

hedonistic feel while perceiving the erotic art.

“Inhaled Fire 1”, mixed media (90x90)

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“Inhaled Fire 2”, mixed media (150x90)

“Inhaled Fire 3”, mixed media (60x60)

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“Inhaled Fire 4”, mixed media (60x60)

“Inhaled Fire 5”, mixed media (90x60)

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“Inhaled Fire 6”, mixed media (60x60)

“Inhaled Fire 7”, mixed media (30x60)

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 “Inhaled Fire 8”, mixed media (100x120)

3.4 A merge of all erotic concepts in a series of paintings called “Ascending Fire”

“Ascending Fire 1”, mixed media (50x60)

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“Ascending Fire 2”, mixed media (60x90)

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Cropped details of the above canvas.

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“Ascending Fire 3”, mixed media (60x90)

Cropped details of the above canvas.

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Cropped details of the above canvas

“Ascending Fire 4”, mixed media (90x60)

“Ascending Fire 5”, mixed media (60x80)

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“Ascending Fire 6”, mixed media (60x60)

“Ascending Fire 7”, mixed media (90x90)

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“Ascending Fire 8”, mixed media (90x60)

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“Ascending Fire 9”, mixed media (90x90)

“Ascending Fire 10”, mixed media (120x100)

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“Introvert ”, mixed media (120x100

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“Ascending Fire 11”, mixed media (120x100)

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“Ascending Fire 12”, mixed media (100x100)

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In what follows we shall see an integration of erotic elements on a piece of furniture

in my Art gallery, cropped details pictures are shown. Methods used include: the

pouring technique, and the dripping of colors. Paint was poured and dripped on the

countertop of a reception bar, hence shown in the motion video attached to the thesis.

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Cropped detail of the above reception bar.

In conclusion to the theoretical part in this chapter, one can perceive the erotic in a

postmodern base, built on the previous five concepts integrated on canvas: The

Wholeness and Fragmentation Concept of the Body at the Same Time, The Concept

of Sexuality Associated with Penetration, The Fluidity and Permeability concept of

the body, The Romantic Conventions of Boundaries concept, and The Storyteller

Ambiguous Gender Concept. Likewise, in what follows, we will continue from the

previous adopted concepts from Winterson’s novel, Written on the Body, while

viewing an animated movie, and 3D Views of my erotic paintings exhibition, “ Fire

on the Floor”, embedded in a 3D virtual art gallery,“ My Lady in Red”.

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4. FUTURE WORK

Own reflections in a 3D virtual art gallery “my Lady in Red”

Following the implementation of The Theory of Postmodern Concepts of the Body

(1993) from Jeanette Winterson's in Written on the Body in my erotic paintings, we

shall observe the previous methods, techniques, and postmodern concepts, inspired by

Vincent Van Gogh, in a virtual presentation, “My Lady in Red”. This includes a

series of what we call erotic abstract paintings in my exhibition titled “Fire on the

Floor”, embedded in a feminine shaped shell gallery. The erotic virtual gallery is

presented as a woman’s figure elongated on her side, shaped in a red rubber inflated

balloon material, inspired by the “Cloud Gate” (2011), the sculpture by Amish

Kapoor, in Chicago. Consequently, an erotic journey in a 3D virtual erotic art gallery,

“My Lady in Red” may be experienced by visitors and explores erotic artworks

through history.

This conclusion merges all the concepts from the research project with a fusion of the

following theories and studies: Mikael Apter’s reversal theory, Daniel Berlyne’s “The

Aesthetic-Arousal Theory”, Kelley Ross’s study and “The Erotic Aesthetic as an

Aesthetic Category”. Furthermore, I have included the experience of Edward Hall,

selective erotic artwork from to the present era in erotic paintings. Moreover, I have

embedded further new findings about the perception and correlation of paintings with

a virtual space.

I have developed new painting techniques that merge the postmodern concepts from

Jeanette Winterson’s ideas, the fluid art techniques as in pouring methods, dripping

skills, as well as hydro dipping with spray paint. All the new painting techniques

merge with inspiration from Van Gogh. Body prints will be presented in a short

movie on how I integrated my research and new findings in this project into a new era

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of inner expression though pouring and mixing paints on canvas, and on to masks and

home décor items.

Moreover, while viewing the animated movie of my virtual art gallery, the viewer

may perceive the gallery from an Ariel mode, as it is a perception of a woman’s

figure elongated on her side. The shape is created from a red rubber inflated balloon,

which is the color of love and passion. The entrance to the gallery is from the lower

part of the body, the feet. The viewer may experience virtual reality after 30 seconds

of visualizing the optical illusion patterned space, acknowledging a state of

subconscious revelation where feelings of nostalgia, skepticism, ambiguity, and loss

of reality may be revealed. Furthermore, the groups of paintings on the wall are

ordered in the pattern of the five concepts related to Written on the Body. The viewer

may embrace the erotic mood if attracted to a particular piece of art according to

his/her aesthetic reaction, pleasurable or not. Consequently, this state of nostalgia

may reveal skepticism, ambiguity, and further questioning the reality of the moment.

The visitor may reverse from the selected work, and a feeling of arousal may emerge,

as he/ she decodes the postmodern signs embraced by the eroticism of the paintings,

and the shape of the interior space. A sense of the aesthetic may still be achieved

irrespective of the feeling of pleasurable or displeasure.

To conclude, the main idea of the painting at a certain point may reveal itself and

come to life coinciding with the viewer’s eye, who simultaneously may experience

the same momentary state as the painter did when creating this specific piece of art.

Hence, hearing tantric music in an erotic ballad, may enlighten the senses, eroticism

may take over, Consequently, and through the reflection on the adopted concepts

shown in Postmodern Concepts of the Body in Jeanette Winterson's work, we may be

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able to reveal my postmodern views through the animated 3D video to show my

hypothesis:

“If aesthetic arousal is achieved through the genre of erotic paintings that revolve

around practical techniques and color movements, then pleasure can be achieved as a

result of the nostalgic feeling.”

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 ͳͲͶ

 ͳͲͷ

To close the practical element, I shall present a motion video about my latest practical

ͳͲ͸

techniques and color movement. In this video you shall perceive the following

painting techniques: pouring, dripping, spray hydro-dipping, body prints. Such new

techniques are incorporated in my latest paintings and artwork. Hence, the viewer

may perceive how the erotic elements and concepts were inspired by my readings,

research, implemented theories, and new findings gave birth to a new postmodern

artist’s work in the field of aesthetic erotic painting.





CONCLUSION

The following section focuses on concluding the research project. It will focus on the

research objective, brief explanation of theories and methodologies used, and the

materialization of all ideas into a virtual art gallery.

Research Objectives: Summary of Findings and Resulting Conclusions

The aim of this project – research is to tackle the relationship between erotic fantasies

and aesthetics in abstract paintings. We inferred that erotic arousal could initiate

aesthetics, while viewing an artwork. The results were experiences of pleasure and

displeasure. These results were based on the fact that each viewer had a subjective

experience of the artwork, and had certain memories triggered that resulted in

pleasure or displeasure. Moreover, through my art production I reflected my

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experience through the production of abstract paintings that might hold erotic

meaning or feelings of the artist within me.

The focus of my research demonstrates that erotic arousal can initiate aesthetics, in a

sense of pleasantness, while perceiving an erotic artwork. The thesis shows that the

aesthetics in paintings are subjective, due to the fact that the viewer holds nostalgic

unconscious suppressed emotions. While the specific research aims are to:

x Understand Eroticism

The word "eroticism" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, Eros. It is

regarded as sensual love or human sex drive. Therefore, erotic art is based on

passionate love and emotions, which are justifiable on aesthetic grounds, and can be a

source of pleasure for individuals who are determined to have power over their bodies

which revels in happiness.

Eroticism is an appealing focus on sexual desire, especially when anticipating sexual

activity, and the feelings are represented in different ways. Erotic art resembles

yearning for ideal beauty and totality, a yearning for the merging of bodies as well as

a desire for aesthetic pleasure. Mythologies add to our understanding of the aesthetic

sense of eroticism and questions of sexuality, which correspond to attaining aesthetics

in erotic artworks.

Moreover, paintings have always shown paradoxes or struggles between two

supremacies, earthly or heavenly, which demonstrates the idea of pleasure and

sexuality versus aesthetic art.

This notion of the dominance of feminine figures in artworks and paintings interests

painters, postmodernist critics, feminists, economists, politicians, psychologists,

tourists, women, and young people. The everlasting admiration of the beauty of the

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human body is a sign of aesthetics arousal, and physical metaphors for creating

pleasure are fully exposed through erotic paintings.

We explored throughout historical representations of eroticism, that an erotic-arousal-

pleasure experience in certain artwork is conceived as a matter of perception, not

logical, but rather aesthetic. In this form, erotic paintings reflect in the passage of

time, light, shadow, and the complete experience of canvas. Only art can

simultaneously awaken all the senses and all the complexities of perception.

x Reflect on thesis through practical work and literature review:

A reflection on my thesis portrays my views through my paintings that will help

prove my hypothesis:

“If aesthetic arousal is achieved in erotic paintings that revolve around practical

techniques and color movements, then pleasure can be achieved as a result of the

nostalgic emotions.”

The erotic abstract aesthetics' enduring appeal is very much alive in abstract

paintings. The objective is to reversal state between dream and reality. In many ways,

abstract artists paint complex, and illogical views with vivid precision. They create

strange beings from everyday objects and develop new painting techniques that allow

the unconscious to express itself. For example, abstract paintings feature the element

of surprise accompanied by an unexpected adjacent element that has no sequence.

This aspect of decoration draws together contemporary enhancements with post-

modernized elements, such as three-dimensional patterns and warm-colored painted

pouring.

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Both my study and practical work are based on a reflection on the novel Written on

the Body by Jeannette Winterson, which deals with the postmodern concepts of the

body. Many claim that a complete body image is built, and then is imposed on body

parts; whereas others claim that the female body is a whole entity. Written on the

Body theorizes the female body in a postmodern way using both fragmentation and

wholeness theories. In addition, Winterson created an engendered lover/narrator in

her novel to disturb any view of gender discrimination. According to Winterson, the

body is no more a rigid unit but rather a fluid matter that can merge with other bodies,

where figures are not linked together by a firm body image but rather by forces of

connection and interaction. By introducing a narrator of many sexual identities, she

overturned the concept of heterosexuality, as well as showing integration between

postmodernism and romance through combining a virtual narrator with a romantic

narrative. Winterson used the concepts of romance to weaken the “discourse of

authenticity”. She did so by ruining the firm personality and by cutting all bodily

boundaries. Winterson did not consider love as an illusion, which resulted in the

creation of a virtual character claiming his/her own reality.

What Winterson changed about postmodernism is the body concept, what seems to be

fixed and stable becomes fluid and changeable, and the greatest importance is

accorded to movable boundaries instead of the interiors. A very romantic

commitment to love nourishes the desire to use bodies and spaces for something other

than the imitation of the real world that is to create something totally new.

Due to the fact that a narrator doesn’t necessarily need to be gendered in order to be

understood, it is possible to create a theory of the female body that does not treat it as

a victim of society but as a multitude of parts joined together, not only by a natural

bond but also by forces of connection.

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Besides, aesthetics in art-works are often belittled due to their abstraction. In fact,

contemporary painting witnesses an analysis of beauty. For instance, post-modern

paintings are often intended to be non-figurative, “abstract” as we say, meaning that

its main feature is not to represent things but rather to show meaning. Beauty, in post-

modern paintings, is what we see in the play of signs, which has a representative

ability, a precise aesthetic value.

x Study the relationship between aesthetic and pleasure

Moving on from our brief discussion about eroticism, pleasure and aesthetics, here I

will summarize the main arguments in the thesis. In our first hypothesis assumption

we tried to prove that “If erotic shapes and principles were implemented in painting,

then pleasure is achieved.” But throughout the process of proving this hypothesis, we

came across synergies in erotic fantasies, their associations with Aesthetic Art, and

their importance in the field of psychology.

In psychology, two main theories highlight the bard of synergies in erotic fantasies,

sexual arousal and aesthetic-pleasure: Apter’s “Reversal Theory” and Berlyne’s

theory “The Aesthetic Pleasure -Arousal”.

On one hand, according to Apter’s “Reversal Theory”, erotic abstract art triggers

pleasure by operating on arousal to discover the hedonistic characteristic stimulations

that produce maximal aesthetic reactions, to induce various delusions that signify a

synergy between actuality and imaginings. Also, according to Apter, synergies

happen in relation to the arousal, they operate on sexual delusions to allow people to

invert themselves in the art work, in addition to lifting their extent of erotic arousal,

excitement and desire while serving their needs for sexual hedonistic purposes.

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On the other hand, the relationship between erotic fantasies and art is explored in

Daniel Berlyne’s “Pleasure-Arousal Theory”. This shows that aesthetics in design is

subjective, it depends on the viewer’s suppressed emotions in his/her unconscious,

and thus it can either be a pleasurable or an unpleasant arousal that simulates an

upsurge in aesthetic reaction.

The arousal theory is also challenging since it is ineffective in stating what is

exclusive to the aesthetic experience. Given that, several simulations influence

arousal levels; for instance, seeing a lifeless animal, which is considered by some as

an extremely aggressive provocation, may raise arousal, whereas deterring one’s sight

would produce serenity. Thus, understanding a piece of art not only elicits pleasure,

but also inspires people to make a judgment about the work and its representations.

According to Juan David Nasio (2003), we learnt that the psychological influence of

erotic art and its reflection on aesthetic-pleasure is a three-way desire: a narcissistic, a

physical and mental desire. The true erogenous area of the body is the brain since it

releases strong sexual responses throughout the body. However, according to Ross,

the erotic is an aesthetic category that sheds light on the purpose of the erotic and it

does not have to be related to beauty, but instead, he claims that the erotic varies on

the beautiful-ugly scale; what one finds erogenous depends on one’s conscious

aesthetic preferences.

x History

Moreover, we encountered a historical time-line study in selective examples from

cultures and religions, Egyptian, Indian, Roman, Greek, and Catholic, as far as the

postmodern area. We learned that erotic signs engraved in interior and exterior

temples, as well as sculptures were inspired and originated from their daily life

rituals, as eroticism was not a taboo but a form of prayer to their particular Gods.

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Correspondingly, many declarations in the field of philosophy claim that the female

body is a whole entity, which is later, inflicted on a body part. However, Winterson’s

novel Written on the Body, which is based on postmodern concepts of the body,

contests these beliefs of the female body and schemes it in a way that uses both

fragmentation and wholeness theories.

x Materialize research findings into an art exhibition

To conclude our study, all the previously elaborated theories, historical artworks, and

concepts are merged in an erotic art exhibition entitled “ Fire on The Floor”. The

main concept of the virtual space, is a shape of a woman elongated on her side, where

the shell of the body is a red rubber inflated balloon, the interior ceiling, walls, and

floor are a fusion of an optical illusion pattern- all of which provides an ambiguous,

nostalgic journey in the viewer’s mind while perceiving selective historical erotic

interiors and exteriors as well as my own painting exhibition.

Furthermore, this new method of digital virtual reality will be the main visual

experience in the erotic video, as the viewer will experience optical illusion patterns

and then a ballade of erotic paintings may reveal itself by appearing in an imaginary

three-dimensional state like the experience shown in a video.

As an artist, whose main interest is painting, thus, my hypotheses need to be tested by

surveying if the artwork instigated erotic reactions from the viewers. With regard to

my exhibition “Fire on the floor” held on August 26, 2019, the exhibition visitors

were very interested and critically aware of the eroticism of the art implemented in

the three-dimensional abstract movements. However, a more elaborate survey of this

approach will distinguish what are aesthetics in erotic paintings, as well as

investigating the breaking of our cultural and religious taboos.

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It is worth mentioning that this study may open the debate on the dominance of

feminine figures in artwork and paintings in Lebanon, besides motivating painters,

postmodernist critics, feminists, economists, politicians, psychologists, tourists, and

women in general, as well as our young generation to examine the female form in art.

Since painting is part of a transformative mode of expression in Lebanon, interpreting

and situating painting, as a medium in a larger context, will help the Lebanese people

appreciate this part of their heritage, a part that is intertwined with art in the rest of

the world.

x Recommendations

Finally, this research was conducted to inspire abstract painters to examine and create

aesthetic impressions which are more important than erotic fundamentals, simply

because they may discover human wholeness. In addition, my practical work serves

to inspire and send a message. This message is that all humans must express their

hidden selves, for this will aid in emotional regulation and self-awareness. I aspire to

be an example for many women and men who don’t know that they are artists. I

invite them to indulge in new experiences to get to know themselves erotically and

artistically. Due to my experience, painting and expressing myself artistically has

served to be a form of self -induced therapy by expressing emotions on canvas. To

illustrate this thought further, we will talk about aesthetics. When an artist comes with

an emotion and expresses it with their chosen artistic medium, they come out seeing

the physical representation of that emotion with their own eyes. This is then an

experience of pleasure or displeasure. This is a very important mode of expression in

order to understand one’s self and emotions.

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 x Contribution of Knowledge

My artwork is my contribution to this project-research; I was inspired by the

historical artwork, psychological theories, and Winterson’s novel Written on the

body. First, the colors, shapes and movements that were found in the historical

artworks heavily influenced my paintings. Second, the concepts in Winterson’s novel

were the basis for the themes of my paintings; they provided the necessary

philosophical erotic concepts that inspired the messages behind each painting. Third,

the theories by Apter and Berlyne taught me that aesthetics are a very vital factor in

the experience of viewing a painting. Therefore, I have emphasized the importance of

the aesthetic reaction on the visitors of my latest exhibition Fire on the Floor. I sought

to know their experiences of each painting, whether they reminded them of certain

memories and whether they were having a good experience or not.

Therefore, my paintings and the art exhibition were a summation and elaborations of

all the historical and theoretical reviews and psychological theories.

Furthermore, I have gained many skills and acquired intricate knowledge from this

project research and I will apply it to reality with the production of an erotic art

museum. It will be thought provocative and interactive, creating a realistic

representation of eroticism. It will be an invitation for all viewers to discover their

hidden erotic fantasies through contemplation of historical artwork, and my own

paintings. Not only will it be a contemplative experience, but rather an interactive

one. After concluding the experience of the museum, there will be a white space,

where all guests will have the chance to express themselves in whatever way they

desire, erotically or not. All tools, colors and mediums will be given, and the guests

will have the opportunity to freely express themselves and their interpretation and

preferences of the art displayed.

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