Whips, threesomes and lesbian chic: Modern Couples celebrates lusty artists

Barbican Centre, LondonThe avant garde didn’t limit their subversive antics to the gallery. As this fun and fascinating show proves, their sex lives were just as transgressiveModern love and modern art go hand in hand. Such, at least, is the premise of this surprisingly sexy exhibition that peers into the domestic arrangements of the avant garde.Redressing the received story of modern art, in which male artists eclipse their female partners, same-sex relationships are glossed over and collaborative unions forgotten, Modern Couples is about relationships between creative people. They like to draw, paint, photograph and wax lyrical – particularly during periods of amorous intoxication, when the other’s body is an erotically charged site. During the height of her relationship with Auguste Rodin, Camille Claudel created tiny models of couples caught in intense embrace. Georges Platt Lynes photographed Monroe Wheeler naked and gorgeously dozing across the rumpled sheets of a disturbed bed. Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca exchanged petulant, passionate correspondence. Continue reading…
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