Art History, School of Art and Design; and Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

"Supervisor: John R. Clarke 

Despite the flood of attention and publicity given to Pop Art, it has suffered from a lack of serious, scholarly study. Many of its most salient qualities remain unexamined. Among the most obvious of these is Pop Art's consistent use of erotic and sexual imagery. By examining Pop's historical development and critically analyzing its erotic elements, this dissertation reevaluates Pop Art in both its cultural and artistic contexts.

The dissertation defines eroticism broadly, based on psychoanalytic ideas of the origin of sexuality in fantasy. It defines Pop Art narrowly as the American art of the early sixties with overwhelming references to commercial and mass-media images and techniques. After a reconstruction of the chronological and historical development of Pop, the dissertation analyzes the uses, sources, and meanings of erotic elements in the works of American Pop artists. It examines the ramifications of feminist criticism and theory in relation to the objectification of woman in Pop. A survey of parallel developments in popular media and intellectual and political history demonstrates crucial connections to the sexual revolution of the sixties.

By examining Pop Art's eroticism we can completely re-evaluate its place in art history--and in American culture. Pop is an expressive, personal art, not cool and distant as earlier writers have maintained. It relates both to the simultaneous cultural discovery of "camp" and to the origins of the sexual revolution. Pop Art's eroticism demonstrated its creators' intense engagement with these issues, and reflected the uses of sexuality in Pop Art's mass media sources. Ultimately, examining the interface between human sexuality and culture helps us understand why issues of sex and eroticism wield such power over human emotions."

Gay male pornographic film and video, which dates from the release of Wakefield Poole's <i>The Boys in the Sand</i> in 1971, has provided gay men an all-too-rare positive image of gay sexuality.

The attached thesis is a reformatted and slightly edited version of the original on file in the libraries of Southern Methodist University.  It does not include the original illustrations.  However, images of these works can be found in the publications in the bibliography, as well as in some newer publications: Mary Vaccaro, Parmigianino: The Paintings; Sylvie Beguin, Parmigianino: The Drawings; and Achim Gnann, Parmigianino.