Adham Faramawy, Body Firming Lotion (SuX 2B U) (detail)

Talk

Provocations in art: the erotic

Friday 17 November 2017 6.30 - 7.45pm

The Reynolds Room, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly

£12, £6 concessions.

Sold out

Dalí / Duchamp

Art historian Dr Alyce Mahon, editor of ‘The Amorist’ Rowan Pelling and artist Adham Faramawy examine how since the 20th century artists have used eroticism in their work. Join this expert panel, chaired by Dr. Shahidha Bari, as they discuss why the erotic continues to challenge viewers and provoke controversy today.

Many consider eroticism in art as a battle between the mind and the body, with artists drawn to it for its aesthetic and ideological charge. Salvador Dalí and Marcel Duchamp both experimented with eroticism in their work, with works such as Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, and Dalí’s Scatalogical Object Functioning Symbolically (The Surrealist Shoe) explicitly exploring and subverting the sexual codes, language and stereotypes dominant within western society.

In this panel discussion we explore some of the reasons behind the use of the erotic within art today. Join us as we examine how artist biography, attitudes to sex, and material influence both artistic choice and audience responses to art and eroticism.

Dr Alyce Mahon, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art History, University of Cambridge, is a specialist in modern and contemporary art and their erotic politics.

Rowan Pelling, editor of The Amorist and former editor of The Erotic Review.

Adham Faramawy, artist and RA Schools alumnus.

Dr Shahidha Bari, Senior Lecturer in Romanticism, Queen Mary University of London & Fellow of Forum for European Philosophy, London School of Economics

£12, £6 concessions.

Sold out