When looking at Mary Webster’s alien erotic art, one is confronted with strong imagery, that although vulgar, is provocative and interesting. Watercolors and ink illustrations combine nude art with surrealism and abstraction. Incorporating humor into her art, the artist depicts fetishes, sexual fantasies, and scenes of debauchery while embracing various forms of sexuality and eroticism. The artworks do not shy away from morbid and even macabre scenes and imagery.

Initially starting with depictions of body modifications and subjects losing themselves to carnal desires, the artist developed her erotic illustrations into serialized works. Webster’s work evolved into incorporating scenes with alien figures engaging in sexual encounters, going about their daily routines, and even portraits of them. The Alien series combines a love for science-fiction and erotica. Additionally, the series embraces vulgarity through unique characters named after the obscene slang terms for male and female sexual genitalia—dick and cunt.

As a self-taught visual artist currently based in the United Kingdom, Webster’s preferred medium is illustrative watercolors and ink pens. With no established studio space, the artist creates art from the comfort of her home. Her creativeness and ideas usually manifest themselves in the nighttime, often leading to the artist going to bed with her sketchbook. Ideas come while gazing onto the garden, looking out a window, or even while traveling. Usually, night or travel sketches are completed at a later date in the artist’s dining room on a small card table. While completing an artwork, classical music plays in the background, and the artist can spend a whole day working on a single piece. English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, and choral composer Gerald Raphael Finzi are among some of the music listened to while drawing. Living alone is a benefit for the artist as she can fully immerse herself in her art, free from any distractions.

Mary’s earlier work

Growing up in Peterborough, Webster began creating art at the early age of thirteen. As an adult, however, she pursued a career in nursing. It was not until 2009 when she embraced her passion for art and created her first erotica collection while continuing her job as a nurse. Though formally pursuing art as a career until late, ideas for illustrating the erotic infused with the macabre, such as body mutilations, date back to the 1980s. One of her earliest pen and ink drawings created in 1985 features an elegantly dressed woman getting her head blown up. And, in 2004 while experimenting with ceramic painting, she created a small vase adorned with vibrant and cheerful colors and floral motifs dramatically juxtaposed by severed feet.

Her interest in the perverse stems from the idealized, eroticized, and fantastical world of sexual narratives present in shunga, Japanese erotic art. With the literal meaning of the term being pictures of spring, the word shunga is a wordplay on spring being a common euphemism for sex. Shunga consists of ukiyo-e woodblock prints illustrating sexual encounters in nonrealistic positions and figures depicted with exaggerated genitalia. More specifically, Webster’s works include elements of ero guro, a subcategory of Japanese erotica characterized by erotic and grotesque nonsense focusing on sexual taboos and decadence. Ero guro works depict scenes full of sexual corruption and self-indulgence. Furthermore, the term’s definition refers to something being erotic and grotesque at the same time. It is important to note that the grotesqueness referred to in ero guro alludes to things that are malformed, unnatural, or horrific and not necessarily depictions of gore.

Exposure to this Japanese art style and other artists exploring similar concepts greatly influenced Webster’s artistic development. She openly embraced images capturing erotic and disturbing depictions of sexual and pleasurable encounters. Some of her contemporary influences and inspirations include the work of the “Godfather of Japanese Erotica,” Japanese painter Toshio Saeki. Saeki’s works combined humor and gore with traditional Japanese motifs of folklore. Similarly, Webster’s work combines satire with body modifications and fetishes. Additionally, her works closely emulate Saeki’s overt and even playful approach to sexual taboos and depiction of shameless and immoral fantasies.

Webster’s work is exquisite and challenging. Most of her works explore eroticism through sensual surreal scenes depicting body mutilations such as missing body parts or mechanical limbs. The morbid scenes present in her artworks come from her imagination, and everything she draws is her unique invention. Mainly getting her ideas from items around her house, such as a SEBO vacuum cleaner or a hand mixer, appliances often appear in Webster’s illustrations as devices for torture, penetration, and pleasure. The use of household items symbolizes the epitome of debauchery. Also, the artist’s knowledge and experiences in the medical field come through in her watercolors as they often include imagery of medical equipment such as syringes and gloves.

Watercolor and ink on paper function as an avenue to illustrate body mutilations in a safe and free manner. In her earlier works, nude figures wore customized red clothing designed by herself. Using red watercolor and then using black ink to draw tiny circles to achieve the appearance of shagreen, a type of rough rawhide, Webster meticulously created the garments characteristic of her work even today. After developing the concept of specifically tailored clothing, limb structures that resembled advanced weaponry and armor started finding themselves incorporated into her customized details.

In 2017, her ideas of adding weapons to limbs merged with the sexual explicitness of her previous works. This erotic combination came into full fruition through her Alien Erotic Art series. The illustrations for the Aliens series stem from the artist’s belief in extraterrestrial life and love for anything science fiction. The serial works quickly developed with new ways to illustrate various limb structures embodying technological advancements or adult toys. Her unique characters, such as “Cunt Buddies” and “Dick Buddies,” serve as embodiments of sexual devices and frequently appear in the imaginary reality depicted in her serial art. With endless opportunities for ideas, the secret libraries of the perverse mind can come to life.

One of her masterpieces from the Alien series is Game of Dicks, a work inspired by a short clip from the popular HBO television show Game of Thrones. The portrait of an Alien warrior illustrates the artist’s sensual and lustful version of a fur cloak, a dick cloak. The brave leader pictured in Game of Dicks, like many other Aliens in her illustrations, wears opulent ruby jewelry. Though the image is full of eroticism and imbued with debauchery, Webster finds a way to incorporate her love for elegant gemstones. Science fiction and fetish imagery contrast with the lavish characteristics conveyed through a fur cloak and expensive jewelry.

Webster’s alien erotic art illustrations have been part of various group exhibitions in galleries throughout London and New York, such as the Copeland Gallery and Limner Gallery. In 2017, six of her works exhibited in the Lausanne Swiss Art Gallery, where she won the Award of Excellence for Erotic Drawing. One of her most notable accomplishments includes having her alien erotic art published in 2009 when she officially began her art career. Since then, her works have appeared in the publications The World’s Greatest Erotic Art Volume 3 and Volume 5 by Erotic Signature.

For Webster, art has no rules. She continuously strives to depict scenes of debauchery through surreal and abstract watercolors and ink pen illustrations. Through nude art, she finds an outlet for making a difference in the portrayal and depictions of the naked human body and sexual acts in art. Mary Webster is the most inventive and one of the most controversial erotic artists we’ve seen to date, and we welcome her to Art Provocateur Gallery.

 

Every once in a while a brilliant artistic flash emerges that redefines a genre or combines ideas into a new fusion of styles. This occurs across all sectors of culture and the arts and it’s no surprise that the art of photography has benefitted from this phenomenon. Helmut Newton, a unique and highly influential figure in contemporary fine art photography produced one such brilliant flash.

Newton was one of the world’s greatest fashion photographers. His erotically charged black-and-white photos achieved near-permanent status on the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and other high fashion magazines. His photographic art – mixing fashion, nudity, and beauty – made him one of the most talked-about contemporary artists of the 1980s and 90s. His compositional talent took fashion photography to a new artistic level.

The first fashion magazines, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue were initially illustrated by hand. It was not until 1913 when Condé Nast hired a photographer famed for his elegant photographic portraits, to shoot for Vogue, that photographs began to be used in fashion editorials. In the 1920s and 1930s, with the help of photography, rising couturiers, such as Chanel, Balenciaga, and Lanvin, became known for their distinctive styles. Paris was the center of the fashion world and the French city attracted some of the most famous fashion photographers of the time, mostly coming from Germany. Photographers such as Horst P. Horst and George Hoyningen-Huene, both working at Vogue, took an important step in re-imaging fashion photography. Paris remained the center of both fashion and fashion photography until the end of the 1930′s but the world was starting to change.

Richard Avedon, an American who began his career in 1944 as an advertising photographer developed an interest in fashion photography, and showed a great aptitude for this genre. Avedon was retained by Harper’s Bazaar and was sent to Paris in 1946 to cover the latest collections from the French fashion houses. The images Avedon captured for Harper’s Bazaar represented a new direction for fashion photography, young and full of energy.

Avedon’s style was all about movement. He replaced the static, lifeless poses of the work that preceded him, with photographs full of vitality. He moved out of the studio and its confining control, preferring to work outdoors, or on location. Capturing lively street scenes and bustling parties, his models were photographed at the moment, showcasing their natural femininity; their flowing clothes seemed to be an elegant extension of their own bodies.

Following on the heels of Avedon, Helmut Newton presented a newly aggressive and erotic image of women, who were radiant, elegant, powerful, and sensual. Avedon and the newly emerging Newton offered a striking counterpoint to contemporary fashion photography that had often portrayed women as weak and controlled.

A master of eroticism’s dark potential, Helmut Newton redefined fashion photography – and even influenced modern sexuality, producing vividly erotic photographic art for Playboy and other leading-edge publications of the time. Newton’s influence has grown to be monumental in scope and impact. He was provocative, in his portrayals of stylized erotic scenes. His female subjects were photographed in suggestive poses, seemingly unaware of the camera. His models were typically tall and strong with perfect physiques – prototypical of later ‘super-models’ of the 1980s. The scenarios he arranged were shocking at the time, but their impact has lessened with the growth of erotic photography worldwide.

A key feature of Newton’s photography is its ambiguity – viewers are never quite sure how to react to the scenes presented. This edgy ambivalence, allied to his style and panache, is what separates his pictures from those of his many imitators. This, and his technical brilliance – the way that he composes, frames and illuminates his photos are in a class of its own.

The world of Helmut Newton is extremely complex and diverse.

Born Helmut Neustaedter, to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, his fascination with photography began at the age of 12. At 16 he was apprenticed to a Berlin-based photographer, who was renowned for her elegant fashion, theatrical and nude photographs, greatly influencing his future career. In the late 1930s, Newton fled Nazi Germany, eventually settling in Australia. In 1946 he became an Australian citizen and set himself up in Melbourne as a professional photographer specializing in fashion and theatre photography.

In 1953 Newton achieved his first big break when he was commissioned to produce a series of fashion shots in a special Australian supplement for Vogue magazine, which appeared in early 1956. Following the success of this, he was given a 12-month contract with British Vogue and moved to London, later settling in Paris where he worked on fashion shoots for a variety of prestigious magazines including French Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Later in his career, he shot covers for Playboy, Nova, Oui, Marie-Claire, and Elle, as well as the American, Italian, and German editions of Vogue.

In the late 1960s, early 70s, he began to create a new style of erotic pictorialism – a type of fashion photography involving cool statuesque, and sexually experienced women, complete with overtones of voyeurism, sadomasochism, fetishism, and lesbianism – the absolute antithesis of the feminist art being produced in America at the time. Newton’s provocative interpretation of elegant and decadent lifestyles, with its powerful, confrontational female nudes, was light years away from the conventional fashion photography practiced by his contemporaries. The publishing industry loved it.

The world of Helmut Newton is extremely complex and diverse. Considered shocking and provocative back in the 60s, by the climax of his career he enjoyed the reputation of a photographer who was able to imagine and visualize his subjects as women who take the lead rather than follow it; women who enjoy the resplendence and vitality of their bodies; women who are both responsible and willing.

The Czech born art historian, and curator of contemporary art and photography Zdenek Felix, has said, “From fashion shots to portraits, from nude studies to the world of ballet, from the erotic to the subject of death – Newton’s work encompassed an almost baroque abundance of themes.” Newton’s unique contribution was to give fashion photography a noir edge, making it one of the coolest genres of contemporary art in the public domain.

Helmut Newton’s genius lies in his work on the female body, his strong, confident Amazons striding towards the camera are an unforgettable moment in fashion history.

Newton died at the age of 83 from injuries received in a car crash near his home in Southern California.

Erotic photographers are a rare breed. They are able to capture the beauty and emotion in tantalizing fine art photographs. Our online erotic art gallery features some of the best erotic photographers from around the globe. Today, we take a look at 10 of America’s best erotic photographers, established and rising stars:

10. Devinn Pierre

Born in Houston Texas, Devinn Pierre is a talented artist. Devinn’s photography focuses on beauty and freedom. Though his nude stills are unique, this artists’ style captures a 70s era retro feel.

Although having a longstanding passion for photography, Devinn is just making headway in the burgeoning erotic photography scene. His photography background includes street-style art and short films, before moving into erotic art. He is already making headway with features in online magazines including Nakid, S&S Mothership, and C-Heads Magazine.

In addition to a passion for the lens, Devinn Pierre is a musician. You can find Devinn’s DJ tracks on Apple Music and Soundcloud.

Devinn shoots on 35mm, medium format, and polaroids. See more of Devinn Pierre’s work in our erotic art gallery.

9. FASFOTO

FASFOTO is an erotic photographer based in Baltimore, Mayland. His work focuses on figure, portraiture, and the female body.

Although another relative newcomer on the erotic art scene, FASFOTO began earning attention quickly. His work has been featured in DEKAN Magazine and he works with a number of talented models.

Intent on capturing and contrasting beauty and shape, his work often features scenic and dynamic backdrops. FASFOTO’s work with models also creates expressive and emotive scenes that offer compelling storytelling.

For more, explore our gallery of erotic photography by FASFOTO.

8. Sasha S

Sasha S, known as nimblephotons on social media, is a San Francisco-based photographer. His work is mostly local, shooting fine art nudes and erotic photographs that feature SF Bay Area landscapes.

Sasha S produces emotive imagery in both color and black & white. Much of his work features sculptural photo prints. He also captures silhouettes and vibrant candid photos as well.

For our full collection of nimblephotons erotic photographs, view our art gallery.

7. Craig Colvin

Another California artist on the list, Crag Colvin is an award-winning erotic photographer from San Jose. His works have been featured in magazines and galleries all around the world.

Colvin’s photography focuses on the form of the human body and he uses the body to capture and compliment the shapes and curves found in nature. Much of Craig Colvin’s photography features scenic nature shots paired with the nude female form.

In addition to scenic photographs, Craig also makes use of geometric backgrounds for sharp contrasts against the body’s natural curves.

Colvin isn’t just a student of his craft, he’s also a teacher – teaching people around the world in workshops and online courses. Discover more of Craig Colvin’s photography in our gallery.

6. Ben Horton

Although based in LA, Ben Horton has made his name by traveling all over the world. Formerly working in the fashion industry, Ben moved into the worlds of fine art and exploration. A born adventurer and climber, his works feature images from views others can’t get to.

 

In addition to erotic fine art, Ben Horton shoots for National Geographic and his appreciation of scenic beauty filters into his dynamic and emotive imagery.

A born storyteller, Ben’s work is provocative and tantalizing. Discover more erotic photography by Ben Horton in our online art gallery.

5. Perry Gallagher

Perry Gallagher is a photographer of fine art nudes and erotic imagery. His work focuses on feminine beauty. Stylistically, he uses available light rather than studio lighting to create intimate, unique imagery.

Gallagher’s work has been featured in magazines, exhibitions, and galleries all around the world. He works with many different styles of fetish photography and has a range of BDSM photography, costume, boudoir, and foot fetish art prints.

An accomplished photographer with worldwide renown, you can explore more of erotic photography prints by Perry Gallagher in our online gallery.

4. Nai Sirrom

Nai Sirrom is a truly unique creative mind in fine art erotic photography. His work ranges from tantalizing to downright bizarre. He can deliver strong introspective work through simple minimalistic imagery.

Sirrom’s imagery is not limited to minimalist photography. He also makes use of highly stylized photography for powerful storytelling. Sirrom makes use of both black and white photography and colorful, vibrant images.

Beyond photography, he also produces erotic fine art through the mediums of mixed media and digital art. Discover and shop Nai Sirrom’s limited edition art prints online in our erotic art gallery.

3. Niel Galen

Self-described as “outrageous and cheeky”, Niel Galen brings a sense of whimsy to erotic photography. His work displays a playful side of capturing the beauty and sensuousness of the female form. Highly conceptual, his work toys with shadows and light.

Galen’s work is full of contrast. With a sense of liberation coming through in his BDSM fetish photography pieces and his sculptural photographs capturing movement and dance.

Discover more thematic, sensuous and playful erotic fine art by Niel Galen in our online art gallery.

2. Craig Morey

Another award-winning erotic photographer featured in the Art Provocateur Gallery, Craig Morey has a long history in the industry. He was a contract photographer for Penthouse International during their peak in the 80s and 90s. Morey has also been featured in books and publications all over the world.

Currently, Morey specializes in portraiture and artistic nude photography. He is best known for his black and white erotic studio nudes but also experiments with color and scenic photography. In fetish photography, Morey is making waves with his evocative bondage art prints. His minimalistic bondage photography is emotive and tells a story all it’s own through shadow and light styling.

Discover BDSM and erotic photography by Craig Morey in our online gallery.

1. Aranka Israni

Currently residing in New York, erotic photographer Aranka Israni is one of the few East-coast representatives on this list. Her exhibitions date back to 2000, predating her post-secondary fine arts education. Since then, her work has been on display around the world and has been featured in publications like La Provence and Vie Magazine.

With her artistic background including live video artistry, Israni’s photography captures movement and the transition between moments. She uses her camera to capture the emotional truth that the human form conveys. In her silhouette photography, she displays the duality of opposites in humanity, with a specific focus on the tension between masculinity and femininity.

Discover and shop limited edition prints of sculptural and erotic photography by Aranka Israni.

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Art Provocateur Gallery is the industry leader in shopping for limited edition erotic art. Our roster of artists consists of the best-established artist and rising stars in the industry. All prints come with the best printing quality and options. Discover leading erotica in limited editions and original art. Browse our online erotic art gallery for more.

Even during his earliest training as an artist, Mapplethorpe sought his own unique expression. During his time as a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, Mapplethorpe built on the cutting-edge approaches of 20th-century icons such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns by focusing on mixed media compositions. It was his acquisition of a Polaroid camera in 1970, however, that truly changed his approach completely. At first, he saw photographs as a means to produce what he called “more honest” collages, but soon, as his finesse in the medium progressed, Mapplethorpe pursued photography as his main medium.

Though some of his initial series were commercial commissions, when shooting for himself Mapplethorpe most often focused his lens on the people that surrounded him: friends, fellow artists, and associates from the S&M underground. It was this more covert culture that came to dominate his artistic oeuvre. His aim in his imagery was not to exaggerate the erotic content. On the contrary, he saw his images as chronicling an under-documented aspect of American culture. “I don’t like the word shocking,” Mapplethorpe mentioned in an ARTnews interview in 1988 when discussing his images, “I’m looking for the unexpected.” He showcases this unexpected aspect in the way in which he crops his compositions.

In most frames, we are not given an entire figure but rather just one of its tantalizing tidbits. On the one hand, such cropping can be seen as teasing the viewer, leaving him or her to imagine the remainder of the figure. On the other hand, this cropping creates a visual distance, or disconnect, that encourages the viewer not to idolize the model as a sex object but rather celebrate the sensual landscape of the body one frame at a time.

One of Mapplethorpe’s most striking series of nude female photographs was shot in the early 1980s. With his prominence as a photographer secured, Mapplethorpe used World Women’s Bodybuilding Champion Lisa Lyon as his muse. In this series, Mapplethorpe conjured intimate images that on the one hand played with the provocative, but on the other, celebrating the classical components of form and proportion. The result was a compelling compendium of images that showcased both the beauty of the female form and the artful eye of Mapplethorpe himself.

 

It was shortly after this series that Mapplethorpe’s health began to decline: 1986 brought the revelation that he was suffering from AIDS. He died three years later at the age of 43, and yet his status was already secured as one of the most significant photographers of the 20th century. This status is still secure today, as Mapplethorpe’s images are continuously recognized for their artful beauty.

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Art Provocateur is an online art gallery featuring the finest limited edition nude and erotic art from a mix of established and growing artists. You can discover titillating fine art prints you won’t find anywhere else. Browse our collection of limited edition erotic art today.

Maybe today it’s easy to succeed in the art of erotica, if by that for an artist, is meant to make an exhibition and find their name in the newspaper. But what really separates some artists from all others is the ability to be noticeable without being aware that they have achieved this level of recognition. Despite numerous painters, who are lovers of paintbrushes and tempera, there are artists who have driven their passion for digital and photography. One of them, the rarest among all, is Jan Saudek, a renowned Czech photographer.

“There are too many imitators – I do not want to show the way to anyone anymore.” – Jan Saudek

Born in Prague in 1935, several years just before World War II, Saudek is forced to face the consequences that will follow only because of his origins. His father was Jewish and many of his relatives ended their lives in a concentration camp. Jan and his brother were also deported to the camp, separated from their father, who shared the same fate with their sons. All of them survive this period. Stuck between memories of murdered children, the sound of shots, a person’s last breaths and his dreams, Jan begins to explore the possibilities and the magic of photography. In 1950 he got his first camera, Kodak Baby Brownie. This was the beginning of the art war lead by Jan against the political system, his family and his lustful dreams.

To understand his erotic art, you need to glance into the deepest and darkest parts of his being. He is like a house with many floors and windows, each one offering a different view. Jan Saudek is the second child in the family, and as he said, “he is predestined to spend all his life as No. 2.” Saudek yearned for physical love since his young years. He lost his virginity at 15, with a girl who was also a virgin. His life is filled with failed relationships, passionate relationships, ruined marriages and separation from his children. Saudek, like any conscious artist, has managed in his own way to fight against the military and the communist regime. Often, he had no opportunity to express his views through his works because they were banned. Traveling to the USA was the first step that led Jan to succeed. He explored all forms of art but mostly focused on his unique life companion: photography.

Jan Saudek has the courage that many of us dream of.

Life experiences, passions, and interests are transferred to the works of Jan Saudek. He creates paintings and photos that speak of: the beauty of life, childhood, dreams, desires and unfulfilled plans, human nature, body and nudity, love and hate, sexuality and sexual attraction, passion, sadism and masochism, domination, melancholy, depression and doubts, life and death, fantasies hidden in the human mind. The works of this extraordinary artist could be the new art genre that has not been named yet.

Eroticism in the works of this Czech genius is shown through the human body and nudity. Jan Saudek has the courage that many of us dream of. Through his photographs, he depicts the female body the way it is, no uniformity, no stereotypes or rules. The female body is presented as a figure of femininity. Sex, penetration, defloration and making love are not taboo for Jan Saudek. Rather, he revives these moments by putting emphasis on the most intimate parts of the human imagination. What other people were seeing as prohibited, incompatible and kitsch – Jan Saudek has used it as the foundation of his art. In the late seventies, his black and white images gain a new dimension; Saudek began to use techniques, which included color, tinting and hand painting.  Using bold colors, Saudek reaches a climax in displaying his individuality. His works not only depict nudity; they themselves are nudity. They are honest, open, without fear or embarrassment to show what lies in the mind and soul of an artist or a simple man. Many of the models in the pictures were his wives, girlfriends, lovers, and children.

The representation of women and the female body is easily noticeable in Saudek’s photographs. He exalts the naked body of a woman in a sophisticated, erotic way. Often it can be aggressive, even grotesque. The female sex organ, its utilization or purity is shown with unprecedented passion. Some of his photos show details of masochism and sadism, sexual domination of masculinity that owns the female body – all this without the intention to harm the woman. Rather, he loves all women beings through his sincere art. The male body is also represented. It is solid, tight and good-looking. The man in the work of Saudek adores the woman; he is experiencing sexual delirium, he enters into an unknown world of sexual fantasy and lust.

Another detail that must not be missed is the vacant room (chambre libre) that Jan uses when making portraits and expressions of his dreams, capturing the moment of imaginativeness. The room is empty; there is no furniture, only details, and a model. Often, the room would have cloudy walls that take one’s mind to the farthest dreams using colorful carpet, skulls, cradles, sex toys, artworks, mirrors, and props.

Saudek gives you a peek into his genius mind, and from his life experience brings us controversial beauty through erotica.

Art Provocateur is the premier online gallery of erotic art prints. Browse our erotic art gallery for limited edition and one-of-a-kind artwork. We have the largest selection of erotic and nude art from both established artists and rising stars.