Penises

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Brian Kokoska Various, 2011
‘Rub Club (2011) is a grainy, black and grey work in which one young man – wearing a kind of eyes wide open non-expression – pulled at the cock of an equally deadpan gentleman to his left. The cool feeling of this rendezvous contrasted sharply against the intense physicality and expressiveness of the tongue sucking and limb twisting orgies of Kokoska’s work from 2008-2010. Even more sober was Honey (2011), in which viewers met the upturned face of yet another fit young man, who, with eyes closed and mouth hanging slightly open, held his own penis, which could just as well have been flacid as erect; the picture’s downward perspective limited viewers vision of the organ to its head, which squeezed over the top of a closed fist, and the accompanying scrotal pouch that protruded beneath it. Like Rub Club, this work was nearly monochromatic. True to its title, it was filled with washed out hues of brownish yellow, with the most saturated tone filling the figure, whose hair, eyelids, nose and lips had been rendered in white. At no point was the paint dense enough to mask the originating pencil sketch. The muted tones of both works corresponded nicely to the exhibition’s title, suggesting the plateauing of a hyperactive lascivious drive once rendered as an ecstacy laced dream.’

 

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Eldridge Cleaver Pants, 1975
‘“Clothing is an extension of the fig leaf — it put our sex inside our bodies,” Cleaver told Newsweek in 1975. “My pants put sex back where it should be.” The Black Panthers frontman and radical intellectual came up with the idea while living in Paris in exile after fleeing charges from a confrontation with the police in 1968.

‘He took out an ad in the classifieds of the International Herald Tribune seeking investors and manufacturers for his collection that outlined the wearer’s genitals in a ‘sock-like codpiece’. ”Millions in profits envisioned,” the advertisement read.

‘A controversial media figure and former Presidential candidate in 1968 for the Peace and Freedom Party, Eldridge took every opportunity to model the pants himself for the press, but few publications would print photographs of the provocative design.

‘Despite creating quite the stir on the 1970s male fashion scene, shockingly the penis pant was never a great commercial success. Cleaver’s questionable design did little to help his reputation with the press, who were quick to paint the former revolutionary turned fashion designer as an ageing civil rights activist gone a little … well, cuckoo.’

 

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Louise Bourgeois Fillette, 1968
‘The title of this phallic sculpture means ‘little girl’, an ironic and unsettling disconnect between word and object. Bourgeois has talked about this work in relation to her experiences as a wife and a mother to three boys. This led her to see masculinity as far more vulnerable than she had imagined. ‘From a sexual point of view I consider the masculine attributes to be extremely delicate’, she explained. ‘They’re objects that the woman, myself, must protect.’ The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe famously portrayed Bourgeois with a version of this work tucked playfully under her arm.’

 

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Fernando Carpaneda Man As Object, 2015
water based clay, wood, mixed medium, human hair (artist own hair), human blood (artist own blood), acrylic paint

 

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Judith Bernstein Various, 1973 – 2015
‘Judith Bernstein has drawn or painted at least 500 phalluses—of all shapes and sizes—over the course of her 50-year career. For her, the phallus, which in her work usually resembles a weapon or a piece of machinery, became a visual metaphor for “feminism and male posturing.” But, as Bernstein will tell you, not all that much has changed since the ’60s, so she’s kept drawing penises ever since. This week, as a man with a long record of sexist rhetoric is inaugurated as America’s new president—and as women gather together in defense of their rights in marches across the world—Bernstein’s big, bold studies of male-centric power feel more relevant than ever.’

 

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Tom Dean Cock Photo, 1972
‘“Cock Photos, 1972” consists of a set of archival quality selenium-toned b/w photographic prints in a signed and numbered edition of 12 plus 3 artsts’ proofs. A black linen portfolio contains the five prints which were originally displayed as photo stats at the Musee d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, 1971. The works were removed from the show at the demand of the police and have not been exhibited since. Each photograph records the artists’ self manipulation of his penis and testicles in close-up.’

 

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Napoleon Bonaparte Penis, 1821
‘When Napoleon died in exile on the island of St. Helena in 1821, his doctor surreptitiously took his penis during the autopsy and gave it to a priest, who smuggled it to Corsica. The priest was killed in a bizarre blood vendetta, says Tony Perrottet, but passed it along to his family. They kept it until 1916, when a British collector got hold of it.

‘Perrottet says it was put on display once, in New York in 1927, and crowds turned out to see it. “It was described as being like a piece of leather or a shriveled eel,” he says.

‘”The penis had taken on quite a mythic status,” Perrottet says. “It was in a little leather presentation box, and it had been dried out in the air. It hadn’t been put in formaldehyde so it was rather the worse for wear, a bit like beef jerky.”

‘Perrottet says the French government had been given the opportunity to buy what might have been the most famous sexual organ in European history. France not only wouldn’t purchase it, the government wouldn’t even admit its existence, he says: “They didn’t touch the penis. They wouldn’t have anything to do with the penis.”‘

 

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Wim Delvoye X-rays, Dick Series, 2000
cibachrome on aluminium

 

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Peiqi Su The Penis Wall, 2014
‘This kinetic sculpture consists of 81 erectable penises that respond to either a viewer’s movements or to realtime movements in the stock market.’

 

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Various Daggering, 2006 – 2008
‘Daggering is a form of dance originating from Jamaica. The dance incorporates the male dancer ramming his crotch area into the female dancer’s buttocks, and other forms of frantic movement. Daggering is not a traditional dance; it is of recent origin, associated with the 2006 wave of dancehall music. The activity of “daggering” has been present in Jamaica’s dancehalls for many years, but only recently has the term “daggering” been used as a description. Some argue that it is roughly the equivalent of the Caribbean’s “cabin stabbing”, another style of music and dance. Mojo magazine journalist and reggae historian David Katz attributes the recent popularity of daggering to a series of dancehall music videos and artists that promoted the style. YouTube videos of people performing daggering have spread the trend worldwide.’

 

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Taro Masushio Untitled 26, 2020
‘After all,’ the voice meanders on, ‘the cock, at least while erect, does not betray the one that adores it.’

 

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Voina A Dick Captured by the FSB, 2010
‘It took members of Voina (pronounced va-ee-NA) 23 seconds to draw a very large, erect penis on the Liteiny Bridge in St Petersburg.’

 

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Curt McDowell The Beatles, 1968
‘In his painting, all four Beatles have their chests cut open for an autopsy. Their remains are expressive and do not have the look of morgue meat. Paul clutches his abdomen, as though he felt the coroner’s incision. (Or perhaps Linda’s vegetarian cuisine did him in.) John has his arm around Paul, who inclines his head toward John’s. Ringo seems to be sniffing Paul’s armpit, or perhaps he is getting closer so as to be included in John’s embrace. Only George strains to get away, as though the prospect of a group hug was too much for him. McDowell painted this post mortem tribute to The Beatles during his first semester at San Francisco Art Institute, around the time he realized that his true métier was filmmaking.’

 

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Claire Milbrath Groin Gazing, 2014
Stylist: Mila Franovic. Assistant: Darby Milbrath. Models: Brandon, Martin, Bazhad, and Alejandro

 

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house of o’dwyer Untitled, 1998
‘This series of photographs captures images of Graffiti penises found in public space and civic precincts.’

 

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Cynthia Plaster Caster Jimi Hendrix Penis, 1968
‘Cynthia Plaster Caster made plaster casts of rock stars’ penises. Cynthia estimates that she completed 55 to 60 successful casts, out of the 70 attempts she has made. She began casting men in 1968, giving new meaning to the term “cock rock.” She charmingly confesses to failing on a few groovy people, such as Eric Burdon of the Animals and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks. In 2000, she began to cast women, choosing breasts for their bouncy goofiness. Her castees, male and female, span a range of musical textures, including: Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson (of MC5), Richard Lloyd (Television), Zal Yanovsky (Lovin’ Spoonful), Jello Biafra, Suzi Gardner, Peaches, Sally Timms, and Karen O. She has even cast such unlikely members as those owned by Anthony Newley and right-wing radio shouter Bob Grant.’

 

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Gilbert & George Dick Seed, 1988
Hand-dyed photograph in artist’s frame.

 

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Salvador Dali Allée Des Verges (Penis Alley), 1969
Drypoint

 

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Norbert Bisky Various, 2007
‘The paintings of Norbert Bisky offer stunning imagery of young males being ejaculated on by unseen men. Many of his images are of queer culture; yet many are violent and not of queer culture at all. His gallery is impressive in its variety of ejaculatory imagery. Finding Bisky’s work online is easy: finding interviews, and then finding them translated to English, is another story. Yet I was able to track down some information on Bisky and why ejaculation became such a powerful tool for his paintings. These images stem from a child born into a German family deeply rooted in religious rule and communist oppression.’

 

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Daniel Edwards Allegory of a Teen Sex Symbol (Justin Bieber), 2011
‘Controversial sculptor Daniel Edwards cannot get enough of Justin Bieber. First, he sculpted Selena Gomez/Justin Bieber as nude Siamese twins, and now he has created a metaphorical sculpture of Justin Bieber’s nether regions. Edwards’ latest Bieber piece is titled ‘Allegory of a Teen Sex Symbol (Justin Bieber)’ and features a symbolic translation of Bieber’s bits and pieces, with Looney Tunes characters taking place of his you-know-whats. Bieber’s goodies are represented with Sylvester and Tweety, and the sculpture is supposed to represent the over-sexualized nature of the 17-year-old pop star.’

 

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Sarah Lucas Beer can penis (1999)
‘This is a sculpture of two dimpled, pressed together beer cans. This sculpture suggests the male genitals, as the title indicates. She has made several “Been Can Penises”, but since they are all hand-made, they are all unique and different.’

 

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Ryan McGinley Untitled (Penis, Cigarette), 2005
Photographs, Chromogenic print flush-mounted to foamcore

 

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Marc H. Miller Draw a Penis and Vagina, 1974
‘My earliest forays into interactive conceptual art involved written language, but I soon began to ask people to make drawings. My first subject was ‘Draw a House, Tree and Person,” a standard projective drawing test used by psychologists. This was followed by the provocative series of penis and vagina drawings that started in 1974, and eventually numbered close to 100 examples by participants of all ages. Although the art dealer Ivan Karp deliberately excluded the series from my second show at OK Harris, these drawings are by far the most viewed section of the 98 Bowery site.’

 

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Evie Leder The Objects, 2017
‘“Evie Leder’s The Objects is a meditation on the body consisting of approximately thirty videos, along with a series of detail photographs and video stills. Over a filming period of ten days, fourteen men—a diverse group of performers and artists in the San Francisco queer scene—visited the artist’s studio one by one. Creating an intimate space and relationship between artist and subject, Leder gave simple, but deliberate instruction: stand quietly, breathe, stretch, open and close eyes, turn. “I asked them to imagine themselves as forms in the frame… the symmetry of their arms and hands, how their breath changes their body. I asked them to imagine us looking at them.”’

 

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Aura Rosenberg Dialectical Porn Rock, 1992
‘Aura told us a story of living upstate and needing to work on something and chose this subject matter—which she made waterproof, and would place in the trout stream where her husband went fishing.’

 

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Raymond Pettibon Various, 2013
‘For his new show at David Zwirner, Raymond Pettibon has raised the craft of penis drawing from pubescent boys’ trapper keepers to high art. When ARTINFO returned after last Thursday’s opening to get a closer look at the expansive (dare we say, seminal?) show, which features Pettibon’s drawings and signature script scrawled and pinned across four large walls at Zwirner’s West 19th Street compound, we noticed that a certain phallic trend kept popping up in the presentation.’

 

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Pablo Picasso Sans Titre, 1967
‘Sex was always a big theme in Picasso’s life and in his work, so as an impulse, which he had no desire to control, this is an important area to understand the impetus behind what he made. As a side note, Picasso watched a lot of porn in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s, he said with the intent to understand the objectification of subjects.’

 

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Richard Newton Touch a Penis, 1977
‘Richard Newton helped redefine art by putting things in the gallery that hadn’t been placed there before — food waste, aluminum cans and shards of glass. He once pretended to be a pageant queen who underwent a sex change operation, and invited a gallery audience to touch his exposed private parts as he stood behind a white sheet.’

Watch video documentation here

 

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Unknown Untitled, 2015
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Paul McCarthy Up Down Penis Show, 1974
‘‘Up Down Penis Show (Basement Tapes)’ (1974), in which the camera zooms in on the artist’s upside down torso and penis as he thrusts his pelvis up and down, and you are left feeling embarrassed and ill at ease even if you are the sole visitor to the gallery.’

 

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Simon Zoric Cock & Balls, 2013
‘Cock & Balls demonstrates just how unremarkable the male genitalia can be. In this autobiographical gesture, Zoric offers and then revokes his own egocentrism asking the audience to suspend disbelief and imagine the artist walking around cock and ball-less. Adding insult to injury, the work has been exhibited on the gallery floor only to find people often missed it and therefore kicked it as they walked through the exhibition space.’

 

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David Shrigley Life Model, 2014
‘A sculpture of a large naked man who urinates in a bucket is the eye-popping centrepiece of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Called Life Model, the artwork sits in a room of chairs and visitors are invited to grab an easel and draw the man, just as they would in a live art class. The results are stuck on the walls of the room, which means anyone who visits the NGV has the potential to become one of its exhibiting artists. The exhibition comes from popular UK artist David Shrigley, who is internationally renowned for his dark humour and simple but pointed black-and-white drawings. He said Life Model was the “art equivalent of karaoke”, in which anyone of any ability got to be an artist. “People are reticent to do it, but once they do they find they really enjoy it. It’s quite liberating,” Shrigley said. “There’s something precious about being an artist in an exhibition and being the centre of attention and this sort of dissipates that.”’

 

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Morwenna Catt David Cameron Voodoo Testicles, 2014
‘There was a flurry of unusual activity at my Etsy Shop today. I wondered why and then discovered that my David Cameron Voodoo Testicles had been featured in The Sunday Times in a little piece by Roland White. I’m really very pleased – not least because it might be the only way the actual David Cameron gets to see my homage to his delicate parts. I’d be particularly keen to ‘set to’ the crown jewels of Nigel farage. Do get in touch if you’re interested!’

 

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Karlheinz Weinberger Various, 1957 – 1974
‘Karlheinz Weinberger began to take pictures as a teenager. In the 40s, he joined the famous Zürich underground gay club “Der Kreis” and began to publish his photos in its magazine under the pseudonym of Jim. In the late 50s, he met young misfits on the street and began to photograph them, in studio at his mother’s apartment or during their trips in the Swiss countryside. Working all his life as a warehouseman for the Siemens factory, he devoted all his spare time to his photographic passion for eccentricity. For more than thirty years, Karlheinz Weinberger followed these young people, who reused the codes of Rebel Without a Cause and created inventive and provocative outfits. His series in black and white and colour follow rockers, bikers and tattooed misfits and offer an amazing portrait of underground Switzerland.’

 

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Elizabeth Berdann Good, Better, Best, 1988
Oil on wood, engraved brass labels

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Shane Christmass, Hi, Shane. My prog interests were more focused on the ‘brainy’ stuff like, oh, Henry Cow or, yeah, Soft Machine, and prog-adjacent bands like Family than on the bombastic, muscle flexing side a la Yes or ELP or Gentle Giant, although I did see those bands live multiple times. I do think Chris Squire was a bit of a genius at his thing. Ha ha, that video. I do love The Buggles. I think their first LP is minor great. Thanks, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thank you, Ben. Ah, you’ve saved the sonic aspect of my weekend yet again. Everyone, Wishing pleasure for all of you, as I so do, my current wish is that you’ll happy-up your body and its interior this weekend via the new episode of Ben ‘_Black_Acrylic’ and ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson’s ‘Play Therapy’. In the maestro’s words: ‘Play Therapy 19 is online here via Mixcloud! Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson is back from the summer holidays to bring you Australian Disco, vintage Belgian Hi NRG and some wonky German Techno too.’ Hit it, yes? Bon weekend, sir. ** Chris Kelso, I definitely like when reading a novel is like microdosing. Man, your kiddo’s existence in the world is getting close. That’s so intense. I have room on my reading pile, yes, thank you. When people ask me where to start with my stuff, I often say ‘My Loose Thread’, so yeah. I’m very happy to hear she’s into it. Will do when I manage to get back to Scotland. Sure would love to. There must be an occasion/way. And you re: Paris. You really should see this vaunted place when you get the chance. A tour guide (me) will be at the ready if you like. Take care. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thank you, pal. Oh, the fundraising is a mystery. We’re told money is being raised, but the powers that be aren’t giving us any specifics other than that they hope to green light the film in September. We have a big producer meeting early next week, and I’m going to try to draw out some specifics. Indeed about nice, animals-focused people. Especially with pigeons which seem like one of the more unfairly dismissed creatures. I’m going to spend at least part of today trying to imagine Crystal Castles unplugged, i.e. basking in your love. That’s a real brain twister of a concept. Love convincing The Rolling Stones that on their upcoming tour they should throw out their usual, oldies-filled set list and do a 90 minute-long cover version of ‘Nancy Boy’ instead, G. ** Sypha, Great news about the ease so far of your root canal. That is a surprise. Not that I’ve had a root canal, but it has an uglier reputation. Continued mega-luck, man. ** Steve Erickson, Whoo hoo, on your negativity. And, as I said, envy on the double whammy of reentering Anthology and seeing the Sharits double projection gig. I think if you do try Yes, and I’m not saying you should, mind you, I would do ‘Close to the Edge’ first. You’ll know pretty quickly whether you want to proceed to the other, mostly lesser stuff. Great list you made there! Everyone, Heed the words of Mr. Steve Erickson. Those words being … ‘Yesterday, I made a Letterboxd list of worthy films you can stream for free (which aren’t legally available on Blu-Ray or VOD in the US, as far as I know)’. ** Bill, Thank you kindly, Bill. I did not know that Bandcamp Friday had returned and, thus, alas. Cool you’re reading Siebert, and what a cool seeming book group, and cool yet again that she joined in. Rock your weekend, or at least fiddle with it. ** Okay. I really don’t imagine that this weekend’s post needs an introduction. See you on Monday.