Best Trend
Sex is back. During the economic downturn in the art market that began in 2008, the collective libido seemed to ebb: one encountered very few hot naked bodies and even fewer images of sex at art fairs. For connoisseurs of bare pulchritude, 2011 proved an outstanding year. Among the noted sexy pieces were Edwin Sanchez's photo series “Heroes in Columbia Do Exist” at Valenzuela Klenner and Xaviera Simmon's photo of a guy with his hard-on jutting from his shorts at David Castillo Gallery, Joan Semel's paintings of entwinement and non-ageist nudes at Alexander Gray Gallery and Betty Tompkins's delicious “Cunt Painting #5” at Galerie Rodolph Janssen, as well as photos by Sunny Suits at Frederick Snitzer, Olaf Breuning's photos of multi-colored nudes at Metro Pictures and Nils Staerk, and, of course, Ryan McGinley's naked kid photos, which were everywhere. Summing up the meaning for us, one wag opined, “Look at all the vaginas — it's a rebirth!” Of the giant vagina painting behind the desk at Paul Kasmin — a takeoff of Courbet’s “Origin of the World” — another wag opined, “You can’t put that on Facebook anymore!”
Pictured here: Edwin Sanchez's Heroes in Columbia Do Exist, 2011, digital photographs.
Courtesy the artist and Valenzuela Klenner
