Taking as its point of departure the meeting of two artists at a tumultuous moment in the 1980s, "Almodovar's Gaze" explores how the photographic and filmmaking lens can fruitfully overlap. American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar (born 1949) first met in Madrid in 1984, when the photographer was there on a visit occasioned by his first exhibition in the city. Mapplethorpe was already an accomplished artist, 38 years old and sure of himself and his sensibility. Pedro Almodovar was a well-known filmmaker in the Spanish underground, and the best-known international representative of the Madrid-based countercultural Movida movement that arose after General Franco's death in 1975. Mapplethorpe and Almodovar had gone out partying in Madrid, which at the time was particularly receptive to young artists closer to the underground than to the establishment. The later impact that Mapplethorpe's retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art had on Almodovar in 1987 was tremendous. This intimate arrangement of Mapplethorpe's seductive and powerful images was carefully selected by Almodovar from over 1,700 of Mapplethorpe's photographs.

Powerful, supple, and sensual - these are words best used to describe the art of TC Cor - an illustrator with an expert eye for the way flesh glistens and muscle ripples on the female form. His newest "bodies" of work have been assembled in this meticulous collection, and is a magnificent gallery of pencil and airbrush illustrations.

This artbook is the latest collection of images, ideas, sketches and photo-realistic works from the mind and easel of Daniel Kiessler. Pairing his masterful abilities to render amazingly detailed and delectable portraits of girls both pretty and "misbehaved" with the colouring genius of Jose Cano, the resulting gallery is nothing short of stunning! Both artists bring their specialties to the mix, and these ladies are showcased in their very best light!

Showcasing a diverse variety of women, these portraits demonstrate the work of famed nude photographer Thomas Karsten. The collection captures a variety of unique subjects from different parts of the world, depicting the individual beauty of each culture and going beyond endeavored poses to communicate intense emotion and eroticism. Combined with the author's poetic reflections, this painstakingly produced volume is both an optical and sensual pleasure. This bilingual edition includes English and German.

His first volume of voluptuous vixens snugly bound and trussed up created more than a few raised eyebrows (and trips to the local rope store!) Vincent Stephens has been hard at work creating an all-new collection of wickedly wild and winsome ladies, cuffed, shackled, and generally all tied up wearing nothing but a knowing smile! This second volume - subtitled "Tighter and Harder" gives bondage art fans a freshly built stage on which to enjoy all new fantasies! And you thought all that nylon cord was just for tying down canvas covers in the winter - silly boy! You can do a HELL of a lot more interesting things, and Mr. Stephens shows you the way!

Even in the Western world, which seems completely accustomed to a widespread appearance of risque images, an erotic painting from five hundred years ago can still manage to create a sensation. This book, the fifteenth title in the popular Guide to Imagery series, is a delightful romp through the portrayal of love and sexuality in art--age-old subjects depicted in all cultures. The volume surveys Western artworks illustrating more or less explicitly delicate or amorous subjects. The gamut of possibilities is vast, ranging from chaste tenderness to overwhelming frenzies of the senses, from Classical allusion to sexual fantasy.
A series of general themes is presented, with a detailed reading of the significance and symbolic content of the individual works illustrating each theme. In the paintings of the past, the reader will encounter gestures, objects, places, and situations that seem familiar and that offer the traditional setting of "love scenes" from every epoch. The volume closes with a chapter highlighting some of the most famous couples of all time."

The trip to Hell is paved with so many delightful distractions! Namely - the smokey-eyed seductresses that lead the way to eternal damnation. Ahh...being bad was never this much fun! Our second descent to the lower circles feature the illustrative talents of Perez, DeSimone, Marachi, Sosa, Pelaez, Arantza, and other lost souls. Sinful cover painting by Arantza.

With every drawing, Pelaez is making more manic collectors of his meticulous and sensual portraits. Whether the subject matter is vampires, demons, warrior queens, mermaids, or jungle girls, Pelaez brings his unique style and eye for detail and creates pure magic! This new showcase of his works has been long overdue, and will help bring everyone up to speed on this intensely talented young man.

Blood-soaked bodies as far as the eye can see. Groans murmur from the not-quite-dead. The fog of war finally lifts, and a lone female form emerges from the shadow. Nice work, cutie! Here's an all-new collection of girls who love to get their kill-crazy on! Big, beefy barbarian boys have nothing on these lethal ladies! This title features Berserker babe artwork by Arantza, Bobillo, Ponce, Buci, Meriggi, Maraschi, Pelaez, and many others.

Throughout his career, Gustav Klimt completed hundreds of paintings and thousands of drawings of delicate beauty, many of them featuring the female form. Designed to imitate an artist's sketchbook, this gorgeous volume reproduces Klimt's most beautiful erotic sketches and watercolors. The experience of viewing them will awaken the senses and afford the reader the guilty pleasure of leafing through an artist's most private visions.

Celebrated photographer Robert Mapplethorpe challenged the limits of censorship and conformity, com- bining technical and formal mastery with unexpected, often provocative content that secured his place in history. Mapplethorpe's artistic vision helped shape the social and cultural fabric of the 1970s and 80s and, following his death in 1989 from AIDS, informed the political landscape of the 1990s. His photographic works continue to resonate with audiences all over the world. Throughout his career, Mapplethorpe preserved studio files and art from every period and vein of his production, including student work, jewelry, sculptures, and commercial assignments. The resulting archive is fascinating and astonishing. With over four hundred illustrations, this volume surveys a virtually unknown resource that sheds new light on the artist's motivations, connections, business acumen, and tal- ent as a curator and collector.

Born like Venus on the half shell from the centuries-long tradition of the nude in painting, the nude first appeared as a subject matter in photography with the introduction of the medium itself, between 1837 and 1840, and has continued as an ever-evolving theme through changing technical developments and cultural mores to the present day. This volume surveys the subject of nudity from the earliest surviving photographs of Greek and Roman sculpture through studies of living nude models for aesthetic or scientific purposes to the burgeoning practice of exploring the human body as pure form. The seventy-eight works, selected from the extensive collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and further contextualized here in the essay Masterworks of the Nude, span the entire arc of the history of photography in a manner that is both fresh and illuminating. Among the sixty-four photographers included are nineteenth-century masters Julia Margaret Cameron, Edgar Degas, and Thomas Eakins; early-twentieth-century artists Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston; mid-twentieth-century innovators Bill Brandt, Harry Callahan, and Minor White; late-twentieth-century image makers Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Herb Ritts; and contemporary artists Chuck Close, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and Mona Kuhn.

This title is savage, relentless, cunning, and awe-inspiring. Throughout time, there have never been figures more admired or feared as the female fighters. Forced by fortune or foreign invader to give up the gentler role as sister, daughter, mother or lover and take up the sword to protect that which she holds most dear - her land, her people, her freedom! To this noble pantheon of women warriors, these daughters of bloody revolution, this sisterhood of steel, we offer up a gallery of glorious tribute in "Sword Song"! This title features a full colour showcase of paintings and illustrations that celebrate supple curves coupled with sharpened weapons to produce a force no man or army can hope to withstand! An equally awesome band of artists paint powerful portraits, and include the work of Daniel Horne, James Hottinger, Steve Fastner & Rich Larson, Blas Gallego, David Dunstan, to name just a few.

The spry and devilishly creative pin-up elder-statesman Archie Dickens is back with a new compendium of cuties to delight an appreciative public. A contemporary of such artistic greats as Elvgren and Vargas, Mr. Dickens is still kicking, still making naughty portraits of young ladies in various states of undress - all with a sly smile and an innocent demeanor. Each illustration features a delightful damsel doing something perfectly ordinary, but in such an extraordinary way! Whether on the phone, on the beach, or on the prowl, Dickens makes these girls shine!