Sexually Explicit Art, Feminist Theory, and Gender in the 1970s

Structured around sexual desire as the central analytical category, this monograph systematically approaches a heterogeneous array of artworks to purposefully examine the entanglements of art, feminist theory, gender, and sexuality. This book considers the potential of sexually explicit art to challenge a socially constructed conception of sexuality as well as gender, and explores the sexually explicit as a means to (re-)claim agency for marginalized subjectivities and to emancipate desire from within the patriarchal and heteronormative system. In distinct case studies, the author focuses on works by four US-American artists – Robert Mapplethorpe, Joan Semmel, Betty Tompkins, and Tee A. Corinne – and situates them in relation to contemporaneous debates associated with the insurgent Sexual Liberation Movements of the 1970s. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, and gender and sexuality studies.

Introduction 1.A Malleable Body 2. Through the Object’s Eye 3. Feminist Pleasures/Pleasurable Feminism 4. Libidinal Disruptions and Homosexual Desire 5. Conclusion

Christian Liclair is an art historian and critic. Heobtained his Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin in 2021.