
Yoga: The Art of Transformation, Asian Art Museum
Kama Sutra (400 BCE–200 CE)
This ancient Sanskrit text, widely repurposed today as a kitschy gift book for lovers, is a manual on sexual intercourse (detailing 64 types of sexual acts), marriage, family life, and love. The book includes 10 chapters focused on specific instructions for touching the body, such as embracing, caressing, kissing, biting, and scratching, as well as sexual positions. One of the oldest books on sex, the Kama Sutra was not translated to English until 1883.

Fertility Lamp, 2009
Galería OMR

Sex Painting #4, 2013
Almine Rech

Sphinx (Silver Leaf), 2011
Fine Art Mia

Love Bed, 2012
Guggenheim Museum

Lilac Legs, 2014
Lehmann Maupin

Untitled, 1985
Lombard Freid Gallery

The Kiss, 2003
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
via 50 Shades of Grey in Art and Literature on artsy