Sexually Explicit Art Feminist Theory and Gender in the 1970s

<p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history visual culture and gender and sexuality studies.</p>