It can as much can titillate us as get a conversation started, but we should also
consider what an unfiltered sex education tool erotic art can be. Displaying as well
as selling a whole bunch of pieces on the 2 nd floor of the EHM we are well aware
of the allure, intellectually as well as emotionally, that sexy sculptures, salacious
sketches, prurient paintings and photographs can have on our attendees. And being
an educational institution as well as a cultural one, we are ever aware of when the
twain meet for something that instructs as well as entertains.

With erotic art it is as much what the pieces reveal across canvas, in stone and
wood or rendered in textile art, as it is where the piece comes from. One can
explore and research the creator of the piece, and the estates that acquired them as
much as the history of the time that the piece was created. Seeing as many erotic
artworks have enjoyed a goodly amount of critique as well as even some actual
legislation leveled against them, studying some pieces even begs the question of
what it is and what is not art, what is or isn’t pornography…and even if these
distinction can even be rightly made.

Professor’s Kate Fisher and Dr. Rebecca Langlands created their Sex and History
project in 2014, coming into high schools to teach students about sexuality by
displaying artifacts, outfits and artwork brought from London’s Science Museum,
collected by Sit Henry Wellcome. The couple displayed Roman phallic amulets,
19th century Chinese ivory figurines of copulating couples, amongst other pieces.
The art work served many purposes in this educational forum, as it seems to do for
anyone of any age; there was visual stimuli to enjoy, the potential of any
uncomfortableness was lessened, and student and teacher connected to the subject
matter in wholly different manner.

Feeding the eye, imagination, libido and the brain, erotic art is that very unique
creation of human society we would do well to keep supporting….and something
human beings seem to be always creating.