Customer Reviews

Sex: Portraits of Passion

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SEX: Portraits of Passion may entice novice fine art book buyers and maybe even curious voyeurs, and that will add to the audience for this thoughtful overview of figurative art throughout the centuries. Perhaps the title and chapter content of the written word will afford a bridge for readers who may not be art lovers, but these days such introductions are always welcome to build appreciation for art history and contemporary art. Generously and beautifully illustrated with paintings, sculpture and photography this little tome is a banquet for discovering new artists among the Old Masters. In the wake of the Brooklyn Museum press, this rich survey enjoys itself, provides beauty, and teases our senses in a way that is healthy, fun, and informative. A natural gift for friends and lovers!

This book is just right for those who want a tame and romantic bedside book. The majority of the work is fully clothed couples walking, talking, hugging, or kissing. If you are looking for something very explicit look elsewhere. Only a very small minority of the art work actually show genitalia and there are only two pieces depicting oral sex.

Draws the attention of every person that comes to my house...But it's a ''turn page book'' with nothing much to give. I had expected much more art filled passionate photographs, but didn't like it. Looked at it only maybe twice. Well it's a matter of taste I guess.

This collection offers an incredible range of imagery, over 350 pages of art on the subject of couples coupling. The sequence of chapters traces each stage of the mating game, from "At first sight" and "Flirting," through to "The main event" and "Afterglow." Throughout, Williams has chosen elegant and tasteful imagery from many sources, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Picasso, and dozens of lesser-known names. Visual styles cover a range as wide as the sources from which they're drawn: ukiyo-e, Indian, photographic, humorous, realistic, and fantastical. A page or two of text introduces each chapter, a few sentences comment on each artwork or artist, apt quotations support the warm mood, and a section at the end adds a teaspoon of biographical information about each contributor. The text really doesn't justify this book, however - it's really about the imagery.

Although nicely printed, this book's gorgeous imagery suffers one frustrating flaw throughout: it's just too small. Many of the images cover a whole page of the book - those offer plenty of detail. Lots of others, however, appear in such small format that they become hard to read, and impossible to appreciate as they deserve to be appreciated. A wish for more of what a book offers is hardly the worst thing one could say about it, however. This collection offers a lot to anyone looking for images of love.

-- wiredweird