Artists - Part 1b

 Juliusz Martwy/Lewandowski (continued)

Martwy/Lewandowsky has painted a large number of nudes and sex scenes.  A few of them include women, but it's clear his main interest is in men.  This 2010 work is called An Egg.

This is Akt Zelony (Green Nude), 2017.

This is Male nude in the bathroom.  I like the realistic, everyday setting.

This is Fruits of the Poison Orchard, 2014.  I'd love to know what the title refers to, but he also made two nearly identical copies of this work, one untitled and one called Lovers with Lamp.  So maybe we shouldn't read too much into the title.

This is called Kochankowie (Lovers), 2017.  Interestingly, his few paintings of heterosexual sex are much more explicit, showing penetrating penises.  His paintings of gay sex are less explicit, but they show people making love, not just having sex.

Even in this untitled 2017 painting of a guy rimming his lover, there's a feeling of care and tenderness.  This is a favorite subject of the artist.  I could have done a whole post on his paintings of guys rimming.

In the end, his paintings are not about sex but love.  This one is just called Love, 2018.  At first I thought the genitals had been omitted on the guy on the left, but when I looked closer, they're there, just dim and shadowy.  The focus is on the kiss, not the genitals.

The artist told a story about this painting.  Some workers came to his place when he was finishing this piece, and he didn't have time to hide it before they arrived.  Later, he put it away.  The next day, when they came back, they demanded to see it, saying "This is love."

Artists - Part 1a

 Juliusz Martwy/Lewandowski

Juliusz Martwy is a Polish artist born in 1977.  He also produces art under the name Juliusz Lewandowski.

By either name, he is gay, and that shows in many of his works.  This is Self-Portrait with Aleksy, 2014.

He has a fascination with the medieval period.  He described this 2020 painting as "Drunken Hussites in their camp."  The multiplicity of little figures reminds us of Pieter Bruegel.

This work is called Crusaders with bananas and swallows.  It's historically possible that Crusaders could have encountered bananas in the Middle East, but the artist no doubt included them to add a little humor as well as being sexually suggestive.  I have no idea what the swallows signify.

Sex is never very far away for this artist.  This cartoon or drawing is captioned: "Thanks to this, they can bravely resist the attacks of the infidels."

Tomorrow: more art by Juliusz Martwy/Lewandowski: nudes and lovers.