Back when royal courts were major art purchasers, painters like Francois Boucher, Rubens and many others got to exercise their sexy muscle on behalf of their royal employers, painting titillating works based on mythology. Many of these erotic paintings (some specifically for the boudoir) now sit in major art museums around the world, a reminder that the erotic in art once had great appeal for patrons who liked a little (or a lot of) sensory pleasure in their paintings and sculpture. As Jonathan Jones said recently about old master paintings in Britain’s National Gallery: “A great painting can be shockingly ...
Recent art history that describes the 1970s as entirely Minimalist leaves out a lot; the same can be said for the predominantly U.S.-centric view. The Swiss Institute is showing the first solo exhibition of Manon’s, a survey from the 1970s to recent work (through June 30), and it’s an eye-opener.