City Has 'Plenty of Eroticism'
Staff Writer
Sex is the main factor for human development, says German erotic-art collector Hans-Jurgen Dopp, who is in St. Petersburg to give a lecture on erotic art on Wednesday. Dopp, 65, said he began his collection 40 years ago. Today it consists of about 5,000 erotic drawings, lithographs, and water colors by international artists, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Hans Bellmar. "I don't find my hobby unusual," he said Monday in an interview. "On the contrary, I am surprised that not all men collect such items because everyone is interested in the topic." Asked how erotic art differs from pornography, he said pornography is essentially a moral term while what interests him in erotic art is the portrayal of sexuality as an expression of freedom. "There's plenty of eroticism in the palaces of St. Petersburg," he said. "For instance, at Pavlovsk many artworks show naked women's breasts." Most artists have created erotic works at some time in their life, but erotic art is still rather rare because many of them have been destroyed at times when they were forbidden, he said. Cultural traditions and the Christian church, which emphasized the development of the spirit rather than the flesh, were mainly responsible for the curbing of erotic art, he said. Erotic art varies in line with the country it comes from. German erotic art often presents a dark variant of sexuality, and can even be anti-erotic because of its connection with violence. While French erotic artists have much lighter view, he said. Dopp said that there are thousands of forms of sexuality, which all have the right to exist, except those that involve sexual violence and children. Dopp's lecture will be given at St. Petersburg's Soitology Institute, which publishes erotic literature and aims to educate people about sex. He will talk about the history of erotic art starting from the Renaissance, and why this art was often forbidden. He will show about150 slides from his art collection at the lecture. Neonilla Samukhina, director of the Soitology Institute, said Dopp's will be the first public lecture at the institute, and is open to anyone older than 18. Information about the lecture can be obtained at tel. 315-6491 or 571-7521.
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