Wikimedia Commons Only fragments of ancient Egypt's Turin Erotic Papyrus exist, but what has been discovered leaves little to the imagination. Jeju Loveland Sculpture Park (Est. 2004) by Hongik University Graduates; Damara Avila, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons however, while overt, is decidedly different from
that of the watercolor and pencil study shown here, which has more in common with the sexually explicit drawings Fuseli made while in Rome. Images such
as the

In the 2010s, there were a lot of erotic artists working. However, in some groups, most of the style is still not as generally recognized as more traditional painting forms such as portraits and landscapes. Over the course of the twentieth century, erotic images in art underwent a fundamental repositioning. Futurism, Cubism, and German expressionism were early 20th-century art styles that investigated the sexual by manipulating the naked to explore different views, color experimentation, and the reduction of the form into mathematical components. hardly raising eyebrows these days. But what about those works whose subjects slid right past first base (and sometimes even second and third)? These ten head-scratching artworks, excerpted from Phaidon’s new Many temples in India feature erotic sculptures and statues on their walls and columns. These temples include the Jain temples, the Lingaraj temple, the Virupaksha temple, the Khajuraho temples, the Sun temple, the Sathyamurthi Perumal Temple, and many others. Having trained in Abstract Expressionism, Semmel now turned to photo-realism, using that aesthetic’s crystal clarity to offer an alternative reality.garnered both critical acclaim and opprobrium when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1782; although it did not diminish the painting’s popularity, the suggestion that the young woman was in the midst of an erotic dream or in a post-orgasmic state was scandalous. Among the painters whose work has been extensively circulated are Luis Royo, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Chris Achilleos, and Clyde Caldwell. The Guild of Erotic Artists was founded in 2002 to gather together a group of like-minded people whose main goal was to communicate themselves and promote the seductive art of erotica for the current day. Between 2010 and 2015, Laura Henkel, director of the Sin City Gallery, organized “12 Inches of Sin”, an exhibit that focused on art that expressed a broad vision of sexuality while also questioning concepts of high and low art. According to Sotheby's, sexual art first emerged in China during the Han Dynasty, around 206 B.C.E., and it became more widespread throughout the region over the centuries. Paintings of nude women in baths and couples engaged in sex acts were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they provide art historians with insight into what Chinese people saw as beautiful and erotic at the time. It’s a popular misunderstanding that the carvings on the ancient Khajuraho temple buildings show sex between gods; instead, the kama arts depict a variety of human sexual gestures. Sala of Cupid and Psyche, Tea Palace, Mantua, with a painting of Zeus seducing Olympias by Giulio Romano; Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The naked portrait was becoming a dominant type of sexual art in the 20th century, much like the academic nude had in the 19th. Critical essays on the “nude”, particularly the female nude, resulted in significant modifications in how images of the nude and depictions of sexuality were viewed. Seminal books were re-examining the concept of the nude and sexuality in art.Still, if there was any suspicion that the statue had been an aberration in a trove of otherwise “proper” antiquities, these hopes were soon dashed. As excavators dug deeper, a torrent of ever-more-libidinous relics emerged: frescoes and mosaics of interspecies fornication, terracotta satyrs dwarfed by their own gargantuan members, and—in one instance—a set of bronze wind chimes depicting a gladiator at war with his own panther-shaped phallus. Dirty Hippie is a series of erotically-charged artworks created by the pop musician and sculptor, Miley Cyrus, and explores sexuality and eroticism through unique combinations of unconventional yet sexually suggestive materials. Cyrus’ unique sculptures reflect the artist’s inner world and public persona as defined by terms such as “sex-loving party girl”, which promotes a sex-positive approach to sculpture through various multi-media assemblages. Some of the materials found in Cyrus’ colorful and provocative sculptures include marijuana joints, vibrators, party favors, and pineapples, which reflect her experience of living life to the fullest. In common with many of Germany’s avant-garde artists, Dix’s social consciousness was aroused when confronted with the sordid realities of the Weimar Republic. Having served as a soldier in the First World War, he yearned for a better society in which men could transcend their social levels. His moral outrage at the grotesque and decadent decay of post-war Europe became the defining subject of his paintings, and he honed in on the prostitutes, pimps, profiteers and beggars who had emerged in the intervening years. His anger at the victimization of the war wounded, who had been left half-starved and unable to support themselves, was represented unsparingly, contrasting the suffering of the unfortunate with the monstrous greed of the rich. in which he emphasizes and repeats the words “very hard,” perhaps with the intention of increasing the eroticism of the piece. How erotic, or not, the experience may be, though, is of course entirely down to the individual participant.