50 Shades Of Class

Helmut Newton The Pearl Necklace, Hotel Bel Air, 2002 Galerie Hans Mayer
Helmut Newton The Pearl Necklace, Hotel Bel Air, 2002 Galerie Hans Mayer
Albrecht Dürer Adam and Eve (B., M,. Holl. 1; S.M.S. 39), 1504 Christie's Old Masters
Albrecht Dürer
Adam and Eve (B., M,. Holl. 1; S.M.S. 39), 1504
Christie’s Old Masters

Marquis de Sade, Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

A French aristocrat, politician, writer, and philosopher infamous for his libertine sexuality and whose name spawned the word “sadism,” Sade was locked up for 32 years of his life in prisons and insane asylums for blasphemy, his abuse of young men, women, servants, and prostitutes, and his shocking writings, including The 120 Days of Sodom (1785), Justine (1791), and Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795). Living through the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, Sade witnessed and participated in an extraordinarily bloody and politically tumultuous period of history. His work subverted traditional notions of beauty, literature, morality, religion, philosophy, politics, psychology, and art. The Musée d’Orsay recently held a spectacular exhibition devoted to Sade—“Sade: Attacking the Sun” (October 2014 to January 2015).

Robert Mapplethorpe UNTITLED (SELF PORTRAIT), ca. 1972 Cheim & Read
Robert Mapplethorpe
UNTITLED (SELF PORTRAIT), ca. 1972
Cheim & Read
Gerhard Richter Kerze, 1982 Fondation Beyeler
Gerhard Richter
Kerze, 1982
Fondation Beyeler
Nobuyoshi Araki Megumi Kagurazaka, 2014 Alex Daniels - Reflex Amsterdam
Nobuyoshi Araki
Megumi Kagurazaka, 2014
Alex Daniels – Reflex Amsterdam
Pablo Picasso L’enlèvement des Sabines (The Rape of the Sabines), 1962 Fondation Beyeler
Pablo Picasso
L’enlèvement des Sabines (The Rape of the Sabines), 1962
Fondation Beyeler
Carlos Motta Hacia una historiografía homoerótica # 2, # 7, 2014 Instituto de Visión
Carlos Motta
Hacia una historiografía homoerótica # 2, # 7, 2014
Instituto de Visión
Jürgen Klauke Grüsse vom Vatikan, 1973 Galerie Hans Mayer
Jürgen Klauke
Grüsse vom Vatikan, 1973
Galerie Hans Mayer