Phantom of Desire

Opening: Friday, 25th April
Curator: Peter Weibel

Two classics from literature, “Venus in Fur” (1869) and “Psychopathia sexualis” (1886) are directly linked to Graz. The novel “Venus in Furs” is seen as a prototype for the writings of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and his wife Wanda, as well as for masochistic phantasies in general. Although Sacher-Masoch as a person has fallen almost into oblivion, his work has gained a lasting effect. Based upon Sacher-Masoch's novel Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, the Grazer physician (1840-1902), coined the term “masochism” in his medical standard work “Psychopathia Sexualis” (1886) as the description of a sexual disposition combining pain and lust. Since then masochism has become the subject of many analysises and studies in film, literature, philosophy, music and the fine arts which reflect this phenomenon in its manifold socio-historical contexts.

On the basis of these facts, a history of sexuality in the arts has been conceived in the form of an exhibition that follows Sacher-Masoch's influence from the end of the nineteenth century till the present. The exhibition should reflect artistic acceptability, namely how the social, political and psycho-analytical implications of masochism were received in the art world: The masochistic body, the profile of the cruel woman, dominant relationships and masochism as the explicit thematisation of power in relationships, fetish and ritual as important elements of setting a masochistic scene and masochism as a psychologically-defining category of, amongst other things, femininity. Here, art is based on the visual aspect, more exactly the visual representation of masochism. The visual representation does not only mean representation of matters sexual, but rather the whole complex of punishment and resistance, controller and victim, immersion and inversion and lust and harm should be illuminated.

Co-Curators: Michael Farin, Christa Steinle, Elisabeth Fiedler
Assistance of Curator: Peter Peer, Anke Orgel
Exhibition architectur: Manfred Wolff-Plottegg

Exhibiton Catalogue
"Phantom of Desire. Visions of Masochism in Art", Peter Weibel, editor
2 volumes, 992 pages, numerous illustrations, belleville publishers, Munich 2003
ISBN 3-936298-24-6, exhibition-shop: Euro 48.- / book-trade: Euro 58.-

Artists

Ajamu
Claude Alexandre
Emmanuelle Antille
Nobuyoshi Araki
Charles Atlas
Christian Ludwig Attersee
Miroslav Balka
Franz von Bayros
Aubrey Beardsley
Fredie Beckmans
Hans Bellmer
Madeleine Berkhemer
Tobias Bernstrup
Gilles Berquet
Josef Beuys
Sylvie Blocher
Barbara Bloom
Monica Bonvicini
Katharina Bosse
Guy Bourdin
Pierre Bourgeade
Victor Brauner
Birgit Brenner
Olaf Breuning
Günter Brus
Noel Burch
Sophie Calle
Jacqueline Chanton
Larry Clark
Jordan Crandall
Guido Crepax
Salvador Dali
Heinrich Davringhausen
Vlasta Delimar
Wim Delvoye
Milena Dopitová
Marcel Duchamp
Nicole Eisenmann
Michel Fingesten
Leonor Fini
Bob Flanagan
Sylvie Fleury
Hideki Fujii
Shinya Fujiwara
Julio Galan
Willi Geiger
Nan Goldin
Greg Gorman
Franz Graf
Fergus Greer
Otto Greiner
Mona Hahn
Yoshifumi Hayashi
Georg Herold
John Hilliard
Rebecca Horn
Horst P. Horst
Eikoh Hosoe
Karl Hubbuch
Georges Hugnet
Alain Jacquet
Charles Francois Jeandel
Allen Jones
Birgit Jürgenssen
Mike Kelley
Anne-Mia Van Kerckhoven
Fernand Khnopff
Tania Kitchell
Jürgen Klauke
Pierre Klossowski
Doris Kloster Oskar Kokoschka
"KOLKOZ"
Katharina Kranichfeld
Les Krims
Elke Krystufek
Alfred Kubin
Karl Kunz
Helmut Lang
Barone de Lapin
Michèle Larue
Jean-Jacques Lebel
Zoe Leonard
David Levinthal
Thomas Locher
Philipp Lorca di Corcia
Heinrich Mann
Robert Mapplethorpe
Ralf Marsault
Plinio Martelli
Olaf Martens
André Masson
Paul McCarthy
Bjarne Melgaard
Annette Messager
Chantal Michel
Mr. Pearl
Tracey Moffat
Pierre Molinier
Morawe/Reiff
Mark Morrisroe
David Nebreda
Helmut Newton
Cady Noland
Albert Oehlen
Catherine Opie
Gina Pane
Christian Paraschiv
Maurizio Pellegrin
Roland Penrose
Raymond Pettibon
Pipifax
Sigmar Polke
Milá Preslová
Arnulf Rainer
Philippe Ramette
Man Ray Catherine
Robbe-Grillet
Felicien Rops
Gerhard Rühm
Jimmy de Sana
Otto Rudolf Schatz
Julia Scher
Rudolf Schlichter
Jacques Schumacher
Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Peter Sengl
Andres Serrano
Cindy Sherman
Flora Sigismundi
Sissi Pepe Smit
Edgard de Souza
Edda Strobl
Franz von Stuck
Jindrich Styrsky
Karel Teige
Wolfgang Tilmans
Tom of Finland
Roland Topor
Nicole Tran Ba Vang
Rosemarie Trockel
Clovis Trouille
Cy Twombly
Salla Tykkä
Raoul Ubac
Tomi Ungerer
Maurice Uzelac
Chris von Wangenheim
John Waters
Joel Peter Witkin