Despite its innocent title, Courbet’s painting L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World), changed eroticism, perversion, and everything that had been conceived as art up until that moment. Maxime Du Camp considered him a trashy artist who may have well illustrated Marquis de Sade’s works. The painting was created in 1866 and by then countless nudes had graced the walls of the most prominent art galleries.
Courbet’s painting wasn’t the first nude in history, but it certainly was the most controversial.
Some believe the painting was commissioned by an Ottoman diplomat called Khalil Bey, which he added to his erotic art collection and saved it for a selected group of admirers. To the rest of the world, Courbet’s painting just didn’t exist. Two years after its creation, he sold his work so people could secretly admire how art could revel in the beauty of the vulva.
French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan also owned this painting, he bought it in 1955 for 1.5 million francs. One would think a scholar’s mind would be open to different perspective, nevertheless, Lacan asked his art dealer to provide him with a double bottom frame to conceal the painting from the curious gaze of visitors.
In fact, Musée d’Orsay, the museum where the painting is housed, had to censor Debora de Robertis’ new artistic proposal. This performance artist spread her legs in front of Coubert’s painting with the aim to question the workings of gender roles. After Courbet many others have used eroticism as a source of inspiration. For this reason, the following Instagram accounts prove that vulvas, BDSM, and wild sex are and will always form part of the art world, as much as our collective imagination.
Raffaele Marinetti
@raffaele.marinetti
This professional artist and illustrator creates images that ennoble eroticism during everyday life. His profile contains the most suggestive positions. They evoke a kind of love that whispers in your ear the filthiest of fantasies. While they’re not overtly explicit, these images faithfully capture those arousing moments when all control is lost.
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Frida Castelli
@fridacastelli
Just as she has stated, her illustrations speak louder than words. Each image evokes a new fantasy that is unleashed in our minds little by little, and before we know it, we are caught in a world of unspoken desires.
For her, love is something that hurts, which is why her provocative images are laced with melancholy and loneliness. Her art shows how we can overcome these feelings of heartbreak through pleasure.
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Francesco Diamanti
@francesco00diamanti
His series and erotic drawings are made up of colorful lines. In his Instagram you’ll find sadism wearing high heels and garters. Not a single man features in these images. Women are the ones who give and receive pleasure.
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Florian Hetz
@florian.hetz
In this photographic project called The Matter of Absence the other’s personality is irrelevant. Anybody can feature in these photographs. Hetz offers a pure and refined representation of human body in a domestic surrounding. The male body is shown through highly sensorial images.
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Ivan Alifan
@ivanalifan
The paintings of this contemporary artist are transformed every time someone looks at them. His portraits don’t seek to show people’s physical features, but rather to underline sexual language hidden in subtext so the spectator can decipher it.
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Stephanie Sarley
@stephanie_sarley
Her work is controversial because she succeeds in placing unthinkable objects in an erotic context related to the female body. With subtle motions, Sarley caresses, penetrates, and masturbates fruits. Her aim is to show that a simple act like peeling a cucumber can be filled with eroticism. Besides fruits, she also has photographs and illustration that use the same discourse and approach.
look_at_this_pusssy
This Instagram account by Chelsea Jones and Eva Sealove is dedicated to the appreciation of vulvas and vagina-like objects. They gather all these images, and their aim is to make the spectator bear in mind that vaginas come in different sizes, shapes, and forms, but all of them are beautiful. They currently have 139 thousand followers
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Sara Lorusso
@loruponyo
This 21-year-old Italian photographer has openly confessed that her work focuses in sexuality through a delicate and intimate metamorphic approach. Her photographs show how, even without using filters, a portrait can reinvent itself over and over.
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Ian Reid
@snitchonthis
At the beginning, Ian became famous for his daring skateboarding videos. Now he focuses on photographing BDSM lifestyle. He photographed a female neighbor who was involved in the BDSM scene and the shoot was so successful he became interested in this subculture.
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Nikki Pecasso
@bonercandy69
Nikki Pecasso is a shameless illustrator who doesn’t hesitate to show us the darkest perversions. Her work shows that in intimacy, everything is permitted. Currently based in Vancouver, she describes her works as “strange shit drawings.” However, that strange shit is also a perfect chance to ask ourselves how much we are willing to let go when the lights go out.
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Translated by Andrea Valle
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