Manhattan Penis Drawings
Analog Porn 8: Keith Haring, Gary Finkel & Brazon!
Eight installment of my collab with AutoErotica, showcasing vintage erotica from its archives. This week curator Bradley Roberge takes us on a tour of Keith Haring’s penis drawings and the art of Gary Finkel. + our Hunk of the Week Brazon.
Manhattan Penis Drawings for Ken Hicks collects together the artist Keith Haring’s penis drawings that were inspired by the architecture of the New York borough. Created in the late 70s, there’s a cartoonish and boyish indulgence about his “dick drawings,” but Haring blends this humour with deeper concerns about power, sex, and politics.
Published by Zurich-based Nieves, the book is simply put together with a single drawing on each double-page spread. His line drawings are sparse, yet the texture from Haring’s sporadic and scratchy markings gives the series energy. Some of the artist’s interpretations are quite literal, like his drawing of the Twin Towers reimagined as two erect penises. Others take a more abstract approach, like the image titled Drawing penises in front of The Museum of Modern Art, where phallic shapes obstruct our view of the building, and another drawing that shows a frenetic mass of penises to represent the hubbub of New York’s streets while emulating futurist paintings. Throughout his work, Haring used this playfulness to tap into more serious issues, and this particular series of works offers a fascinating and tongue-in-cheek glimpse into the artist’s later work. [source: itsnicethat.com]
AutoErotica is a Queer adult store and museum in San Francisco’s Castro gayborhood. For 30 years, it has bought and sold vintage erotica, ephemera and art. Photographer Bradley Roberge scans its treasures and is curating this special series. AutoErotica just launched their own Substack, with 3 posts a week, give ‘em a follow!
Portfolio: Modern Michelangelo 🎨 The Art of Gary Finkel • Torso / November 1983
By way of scenic art for The New York City Opera, Broadway theatre, and motion pictures, a “natural progression” to commissioned, overscale wall murals, artist/artisan Gary Finkel has tailored the “fluid, elegant” lines of Michelangelo to the tastes of mainstream New York collectors. Exposure from sources as varied as the prestigious Robert Samuel Gallery to a piece in Bloomingdale’s has edged Gary to the forefront of New York City Classicists.
“I admire the control, the draftsmanship involved in portraying the classic nude. Working in earth colored conte crayon to capture the quality of an old master’s sketch, but in a scale life-size or larger, creates a contemporary image. I want the male nude to be a subject in art as acceptable as the female nude or landscape.”
Hunk of the Week!
Brazon 💜 Photography by Falcon • Torso / November 1983
X-RATED GALLERY for PAID SUBSCRIBERS 7 pages
