The Intriguing Appeal of Erotic Abstraction

LONDON — Some of the Courtauld’s previous exhibitions have suffered from insufficient curation. “Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Alice Adams, Eva Hesse,” on the other hand, strikes the exact right balance. Drawing on scholar Jo Applin’s research, curator Alexandra Gerstein has taken as a starting point the work of feminist curator and critic Lucy Lippard, who coined the titular term to describe this sensuous strand of art emerging in 1960s New York. Making perhaps the best use yet of the Courtauld’s teeny exhibition spaces next to the permanent collection, this small but unstuffed show gives proper breathing space for artistic dialogue and, crucially, for the viewer to engage in exploring differences and similarities between works and practices for themselves.

In 1966, Lippard curated the exhibition “Eccentric Abstraction” to capture a new wave of sculptures created from unusual, pliable materials like wire, plastic mesh, netting, and latex, which evoked tactile organic forms and, by extension, the human body. This is the Courtauld’s first show devoted to standalone sculpture, and the contrast between these blob-like forms and its Impressionist-heavy permanent collection may go some way to recreate just how different — even alarming — these pieces will have appeared to 1960s audiences just getting over the shock of Abstract Expressionism’s rehauling of formalist painting.

The three artists are each afforded an introductory caption presenting historical context. No direct written comparisons are made between them, nor any attempt to force commonality, for historically, there is none other than their working in generally the same space and time. This is good curating: The show allows viewers to ask and think for themselves. Its skill lies in making suggestions via the pieces selected for display, allowing for robust visual comparison. Viewers won’t be able to ignore the strain of eroticism that stems from their irresistible tactility, which is both alluring and fear-inducing, nor their uncanny resemblance to certain human appendages (ahem).

Applin and Gerstein do point out that all three artists’ experimentation with latex marked a turning point in their explorations of eroticism and the unconscious. The exhibition’s most well-known artist, Bourgeois, was born in Paris in 1911 and moved to New York in 1938. Duly included here is her “Filette (Sweeter Version)” (1968–99/2006), unmistakably an erect penis (or, more accurately, one yanked upwards by string) in urethane rubber, given the ambiguous French title “Little Girl.” Adams graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Fine Arts in 1953 before becoming an accomplished weaver. Her foray into obscure materials is here represented by such pieces as the nearby “Expanded Cylinder” (1970), in which she allowed latex foam to expand and set into a constricting tube of chain link, producing a regular weave-like texture while maintaining a phallic, slippery form. Finally, Hesse, born in 1936 in Hamburg before settling in New York, made sculptures of forms bound, twisted, and caught in netting. Applin and Gerstein draw out the latex connection again via the caption, which quotes Hesse on the material’s inevitable deterioration: “Art doesn’t last; life doesn’t last.” Fittingly, though unfortunately, there are no latex examples here.

It is also unfortunate that this small but perfectly formed show was relatively empty on a weekend. The scrappy, experimental mark-making explored by these three pioneering artists is one important strain in the development of feminist art. Their unsettling forms provoke, titillate, and amuse — welcome responses to female voices and artistic expression. Perhaps it is reflective of trends in audience attention that a solid academic show like this should be less visited than the packed-out recent exhibitions on Peter Doig or yet more Impressionism. We all know sex sells: Does the marketing perhaps need to shout “Eroticism!” or “Rubber penises!” to get punters through the door these days?

“Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams” continues at the Courtauld Gallery (Somerset House, London) through September 14. The exhibition was curated by Alexandra Gerstein based on the research of Jo Applin.