The History of Erotic Art, in One Very Large and Heavy Book

Sexuality and art have always gone hand in hand. Or, hand in … you get the idea.

The art publisher Phaidon recognizes that important historical link in The Art of the Erotic, a compendium of 170 sensual art pieces throughout the ages, edited by U.K. journalist/erotic publisher Rowan Pelling (The Amorist).

The new hardcover, chronologically organized, starts in 470 BC with handpainted Athenian cups and works through the sexy likes of Titian, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Edvard Munch, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Lucian Freud, Louise Bourgeois, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Cecily Brown, Anselm Kiefer, George Condo and Anish Kapoor, among others.

Fun fact: the fold-out cover — which unravels and re-assembles into a slit — was inspired by Lucio Fontana’s 1950s series Concetto Spaziale.

The Art of the Erotic is available now.