Erotic City

Helen Beard, Judith Bernstein, Paul Cadmus, Miriam Cahn, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, William R. Christopher, Jimmy DeSana, Lauren dela Roche, Jane Dickson, Rosalyn Drexler, Martha Edelheit, Sarah Faux, Mary Frank, Louis Fratino, Eunice Golden, Jenna Gribbon, Duncan Hannah, Jane Kogan, Joyce Kozloff, Sophie Larrimore, Pierre le Riche, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Kim Levin, Lee Lozano, Christabel MacGreevy, Keith Mayerson, Marilyn Minter, Jay Miriam, Rose Nestler, Janice Nowinski, Tom of Finland, Letitia Quesenberry, GaHee Park, Claudia Renfro, Kathy Ruttenberg, Sal Salandra, Mira Schor, Carolee Schneemann, Lara Schnitger, Joan Semmel, Patrick Siler, Laurie Simmons, Anita Steckel, Betty Tompkins, Katarina Janečková Walshe, Mia Weiner, Hannah Wilke, Didier William

Eric Firestone Gallery is pleased to present Erotic City, a group exhibition of over forty artists, curated by Martha Edelheit. Edelheit (b. 1931, New York, NY) is a pioneering artist whose work confronts dominant art historical paradigms, foregrounding female gaze and desire. Her lush and vivid work is at once critical, sensual, and humorous. An important voice for feminist art, she is known for both her frank depictions of sexuality and her insistence on their place within an art historical tradition and society. Edelheit, who has been represented by Eric Firestone Gallery since 2018, lived in Sweden from 1993 until 2024. Now in her 90s she once again lives and works in New York City. 

Edelheit writes of Erotic City: 

What is the difference between pornography and erotic art? I’m 93 years old. In our culture it wouldn’t be unusual to ask what someone my age is doing curating an erotic exhibition. While it may not be common knowledge, most of my peers still have erotic lives, some more active than others. Behind that sometimes bent and wrinkled exterior a very intense sensory life can still be functioning. Since the 1960s I’ve been doing work that has been called erotic. I never set out to do erotic drawings. I never thought of my work as erotic. I was drawing amusing stories I made up for myself. I can’t do these drawings, or stories, on demand. They happen to me. In 1959–60 a friend showed me his copy of the Japanese Pillow Book. It was my first encounter with erotica and it profoundly affected my imagination and art making. It is still the lens through which I view erotic art. A writer of novels once stated that “pornography is a book you read with one hand.” Erotic works are images and writings you can also look at with one hand. Concepts of the erotic and pornographic change over time, and reflect the culture and politics of the era. Religion and politics define what is and isn’t pornography or erotica. The erotic novels of D.H. Lawrence were condemned as pornography when first published. When I was twelve or thirteen years old the erotic book being passed under the desks in my public school was “Gone With the Wind”.

I think of pornography as cold, abusive, nonconsensual, painful, humiliating, mean, degrading, clinical. Pornography is a commercial endeavor. Money is exchanged for specific services rendered, either in person, film, books, pictures. It often supplies services for what is sometimes called deviant needs…..punishment, pain, humiliation, infantile fantasies. Stomping, spanking, beating, binding, hitting, exposing, choking, submission to a dominating person, or dominating someone else. It has a much clearer delineation than erotica.

I think of the erotic as sensual, nonviolent, consensual, warm, inviting, sometimes funny, witty, amusing. Erotica can include some of the pornographer's stock in trade, but it is lighter in touch, sometimes humorous, often witty, and aesthetically pleasurable. Erotica assumes shared association, touching, stroking, licking, looking, playing, exposing….it digresses, teases, laughs, arouses, without harming.

Genitalia, vaginas, breasts, and penises are not pornographic or erotic. They are normal mammal body parts, usually used in reproduction. They depend on context to become pornographic or erotic. 

While pornography will arouse, it will not delight. Pornography can give immediate physical relief. Erotica can arouse but it also can give lasting aesthetic pleasure on many levels.

I hope this small selection of what I and the Eric Firestone Gallery consider erotic imagery will give you, the viewers, that experience.

Martha Edelheit has selected over forty artists who express this vision of the erotic, with works ranging from the 1950s to the present. Erotic City includes both historic and contemporary artists and showcases artists whose sensual work would immediately come to mind—such as Joan Semmel and Marilyn Minter—alongside artists for whom the erotic has been a significant, though not always highlighted, focus. A public program related to the exhibition will be announced soon, for further exploration of its themes. We invite you to join us for the opening reception on March 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.