Cover ‘Dirty—Jeff on Top’ (1991) by Jeff Koons at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
‘Dirty—Jeff on Top’ (1991) by Jeff Koons at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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Sotheby’s latest exhibition ‘Eros/Thanatos’ demonstrates that the industry is less about erotic imagery than the way art itself is experienced.
Descend into the “grotto” of Sotheby’s Maison in Hong Kong this month and the scene is anything but conventional. Soundtracks of love and passion float across the space: Cigarettes After Sex, Queen, Elvis Presley, Edith Piaf and Tom Jones, alongside Richard Wagner and Sergei Prokofiev. As the eye adjusts to the darkened gallery, visitors find themselves surrounded by paintings, sculptures, books and antiquities exploring sex, love and desire.
Some works are subtle, such as the first edition of French poet Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du Mal (1857), which meditates on sexuality and death, or British painter Cecily Brown’s Guys and Dolls (1997–98), an abstract evocation of an orgy-like scene of twisting bodies conveyed through fleshy strokes and the tactility of paint. Others are more explicit: American contemporary artist Jeff Koons’ plastic sculpture of himself with former wife, porn actor Ilona Staller, or British pop artist Allen Jones’ Hatstand (1969), a fetishistic “furniture” sculpture in which women’s bodies become functional objects.
Above ‘Eros/Thanatos’ at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
‘Eros/Thanatos’ at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
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These are all part of Eros/Thanatos, a two-week show which runs until September 26 at Sotheby’s Maison in Central. Its focus is not only on desire (Eros) but also on death (Thanatos), inspired by Georges Bataille, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Stretching across centuries and cultures, it invites audiences to confront one of art’s most primal dualities.
When Nicolas Chow, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia and worldwide head of Asian art, and Nick Buckley Wood, the house’s private sales director for Asia, began conceptualising the show six months earlier, their first thought was an exhibition on sex. “It’s a fun topic. Everyone loves it,” Chow says. “And it always attracts a great audience.”
Adding death to the mix, another cornerstone of Greek mythology, gave the project greater depth. Chow explains, “You get that incredible tension between beauty, love, sex, passion, death and desire—forces that have inspired artists, poets and musicians for centuries. Suddenly, the subject has a lot of gravitas.”
Above ‘Dirty—Jeff on Top’ (1991) by Jeff Koons at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
‘Dirty—Jeff on Top’ (1991) by Jeff Koons at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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The exhibition has already attracted diverse crowds: collectors, couples on a date, the culturally curious—and on September 20, even a family with a young child, who were promptly turned away by security. Images of the show have gone viral on social media, with weekends drawing full houses thanks to a live shibari performance staged for VIP guests. Chow adds that many of the more explicit works were sold privately within the first few days.
So does this signal a growing market for erotic art in Asia? Chow believes so. “Definitely, there is an audience. I know of a few collectors who have built collections of erotic art over the years, or some people would just complement an erotic piece next to something else, which can open perspectives on that work.”
Above ‘Les fleurs du Mal’ (1857) by Charles Baudelaire at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
‘Les fleurs du Mal’ (1857) by Charles Baudelaire at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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Indeed, the region has long engaged with the erotic. In Tokyo, centuries-old Japanese erotic prints known as shunga were exhibited this summer in Kabukicho. In Seoul, the Love Museum invites visitors into a world of interactive erotic art, from trick-eye works to playful sculptures. In Hong Kong, institutions such as M+ and the Hong Kong Museum of Art, along with galleries like Alisan Fine Arts, have exhibited pieces of varying sexual explicitness.
Sotheby’s itself has prior form. In 2013, Beyond The Paper Screen showcased Japanese shunga prints, while the 2014 exhibition Gardens of Pleasure presented Chinese erotic paintings, figurines and sculptures from the renowned Bertholet Collection, the world’s largest of its kind with around 500 works. Both shows were among the house’s most visited in its Hong Kong programme.
Above A rare polychrome wood figure of Chitipati Qing dynasty (18th century) at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
A rare polychrome wood figure of Chitipati Qing dynasty (18th century) at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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Yet Chow is clear: Eros/Thanatos is not a sign of business pivoting to erotica, but rather a step toward imaginative, immersive exhibition concepts. “If we follow only what is tradable, as we have for decades, our exhibitions become a very boring aesthetic experience,” he says. “With Maison, we want to focus entirely on what art is about, essentially.”
Here, the emphasis is on experience rather than academic study. The interplay of artworks, music and displayed quotations creates a layered exchange. A line by Marquis de Sade on sadism hangs above a rare copy of The 120 Days of Sodom (1953–54), while Koons’ Dirty—Jeff on Top (1991) was the backdrop to shibari performances. Lyrics from Christian Death’s 1982 goth anthem Figurative Theatre are juxtaposed with Zao Wou-Ki’s sombre Sous Bois Dans La Nuit (1955).
Above ‘Guys and Dolls’ by Cecily Brown (titled and dated 1997-98 on the reverse, signed and dated 1998 on the stretcher) at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
‘Guys and Dolls’ by Cecily Brown (titled and dated 1997-98 on the reverse, signed and dated 1998 on the stretcher) at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
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“It’s playing with the high and the low, the ancient and the contemporary, and art in all its forms,” Chow says. “I don’t want to set a Gothic band from the 1980s at any other level than Shakespeare, Carl Jung or any of those great thinkers. It is all human experiences and emotions. It’s all some form of poetry from different strands of culture.”
Even sexually themed art is presented here with intellectual weight, opening fresh perspectives on human desire and philosophies rather than simply displaying explicit imagery. “It’s not so much about explicit images,” Chow notes. “Any adult will have seen that somewhere. But some of the ideas we put forward may be harder to digest.” He refers to disturbing quotations from de Sade, for example.
Above ‘Eros/Thanatos’ at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
‘Eros/Thanatos’ at Sotheby’s Maison, Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s)
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At the same time, it is also about the subtler cues such as the evocative role of music. “A musical score is very important because it brings these works alive. Stand in front of Dirty—Jeff on Top with Carmina Burana (1937) playing, or Serge Gainsbourg, and your perspective changes completely. The mood, the lyrics, your understanding of the object—everything changes,” Chow explains. “I love looking at work and experiencing it with very different playlists that open perspectives.”
Ultimately, Chow’s ambition is existential rather than sensational. “What we had in mind,” he says, “is for people to walk in, feel alive through the exhibition and have a real existential experience.”
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
