These well known vintage erotic art pieces are fascinating.
“Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets”
– Andy Warhol (artist with vintage erotic art collection)
Do you agree with Andy?
Despite the ever changing taboos and social norms, sex and erotica was and always will be a powerful force in human nature. Sex and love united countries, created scandals and so much more throughout our lifetimes. These vintage erotic art pieces from history prove our fascination with sex was always the same.
A few of these vintage erotica pieces below are pretty explicit. A few would make a modern day porn star blush.
There’s nothing new about exposing ourselves. We are humans, sexual beings and artists. Sex is not only fun, sex is also art. It’s a way of self expression and that’s exactly what art is. It’s a pure, it’s animalistic, it’s beautiful, life changing, can be empowering, has health benefits and just part of life. I have so many beautiful words for sex and sexuality.
Sexuality is not only about art and human expression. Our sexuality is something that thrives only when it’s authentic. Our sexuality is our core.
So check out these beautiful sexually stimulating erotic art pieces from the past. Some are famous, some are straight up wild and some are pretty hardcore.
Table of Contents
Even though you can find many forms of erotica that can be dated as far as 40,000 years ago, here are a few examples:
The Origin of the World
- In 1866, an artist named Gustave Courbet produced “The Origin of the World.” This piece of a scandalous painting of a woman’s vagina- bush and all. Joanna Hiffernan was his muse at the time. Also known as Jo, she was also a lover of a close friend of his, painter James Whistler. Jo is suspected to be the owner of the vagina which may explain why Courbet’s friendship with Whistler ended.
World’s First Men’s Magazine.
- The Turin Erotic Papyrus is considered the world’s first mens magazine. It was created in one the most sexual ancient civilizations, ancient Egypt. It’s an 8 foot papyrus scroll features 12 very graphic erotic images. Most of the images in the The Turin Erotic Papyrus were sexual acts between older men and young beautiful women. It was discovered in the 1820s.
Wood Erotica
- Shunga is a Japanese term for “spring pictures”. Shunga is a series of wood block erotic prints. These pieces of art were produced around the Edo period (1603-1867). They featured all sorts of erotic images including beastiality and homosexuality. Shunga blocks were used to teach young couples about lovemaking.
Strange Male Orgy
- This piece by Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Mustafa Al-Misri (YES, that is his long name) was featured in a Turkish manuscript in 1773 called the Alain Kahn-Sriber Collection Despite the fact that there is not much information on this piece, we HAD to include this raunchy one.
The Sixteen Pleasures
- Marcantonio Raimondi was an illustrator who was arrested for printing these images in 1524. I Modi also known as The Sixteen Pleasures is a set of illustrations inspired by the painter Gulio Romano. The original was destroyed by the Catholic Church but copies still lived on.
There Was Even Subscriptions for Vintage Erotica
- Édouard-Henri Avril is an erotic artist from the 1800s. He was in the military until he was wounded. He studied fine arts after and started out as a commercial artist. He then started working for companies and produced erotica for subscribers only.
Censorship never stopped a true artist from doing their work. Artist have an out of control need to express themselves. A creative must always create and people will always be curious about sex. Erotic art provokes emotions. Emotions can lead to action. One day today will be vintage erotica.
