London,

Sexy art that fails to titillate

By Nick Curtis, Evening Standard  25.10.07

Phwoar! Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now, eh? "Broaden your mind and stimulate your senses"? This Barbican exhibition sounds like a right goer, doesn't it, eh?

Prepare to be disappointed. Seduced falls between the stools of scholarliness and salacity. Anyone hoping for a turn-on surely won't be aroused by much of the material on show. I'm not being culturally insensitive when I say that the engorged genitalia and straining faces of the figures in 18th-century Japanese shugu prints, or the bound feet of the women in corresponding Chinese illustrations, did little for me.

I was just as unmoved by the furtive erotic sketches of Turner and Rodin and the orally-inspired orgasms filmed by Andy Warhol and k r buxey (sic). The homosexual genital torture of Robert Mapplethorpe? Old hat. Aubrey Beardsley's inky penises? Bo-ring. Admittedly, it's interesting to note the similarities between the kitsch porn of Jeff Koons and the chocolate-box erotica of Fragonard. Interesting, yes. Exciting, no.

Although Seduced sells itself on titillation, the underlying intention is to illuminate. Unfortunately, its historical trawl through the annals (that's annals) of erotica feels somewhat piecemeal - in art as in sex, availability is a problem. And the text accompanying the works is at times oddly coy. Little context is given about the classical images of nymphs "surprised" by satyrs, still less the Turkish image from 1773 of a kind of interlinked, all-male, circular conga line (although the smiles on the men's faces tell their own story).

The pleasures of Seduced are incidental. I wondered if the Roman Tintinnabulum, a brass penis hung with little bells, was the inspiration for the phrase "pull the other one".

And looking at the patrons is at least as much fun as looking at the art works. Most of the people cruising the exhibition seem to be single. The Barbican may have created the perfect environment for pulling - hovering around the Mapplethorpe room would certainly cut out the small talk.

• Seduced is at the Barbican until 27 Jan (www.barbican.org.uk, 0845 120 7550) Over-18s only.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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