Art depicting or alluding positively to sex work?

March 19, 2016 10:50 AM

I am looking to decorate a private space with (inexpensive) artwork alluding to sex workers in a positive light. Over the past few months, I have been doing (full service) sex work, and I would like a small decoration in my personal space reflecting this side of me. I'm thinking more along the lines of empowered courtesans or oblique references; I really don't want images of semi-nude women lounging around. Suggestions?
posted by anonymous to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

Google hetaira. There are many Greek vase images.
posted by hexatron at 11:10 AM on March 19, 2016

I don't have any specific suggestions, but perhaps an image of Empress Theodora, one of the most powerful women in antiquity and former sex worker.
posted by Diagonalize at 11:12 AM on March 19, 2016

The classic would be Manet's Olympia. She's nude, but famously confrontational and in control of her space. It is extremely well known and the nudity wouldn't raise many eyebrows.

Otherwise you might look at Japanese woodblock prints of orian, like this one.
posted by Cuke at 11:18 AM on March 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Any Renaissance painting showing Mary Magdalene! She's usually dressed.

Caravaggio has a fully-clothed "Portrait of a Courtesan" that's beautiful.

A lot of Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings are of sex workers, I think, but some of them are also semi-nude. The pictures of Moulin Rouge chorus girls basically fit the bill and are famous enough that you should be able to get them as posters.
posted by babelfish at 11:46 AM on March 19, 2016

Madame De Pompadour was King Louis XV's mistress and main advisor for almost 20 years. There are a number of absolutely stunning portraits of her by the French Rococo painter Francois Boucher available very cheaply from a wide variety of sources.
posted by djinn dandy at 11:51 AM on March 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Nana, also by Manet (no nudity, no lounging).

Less well-known: Josef Engelhart, Loge in the Sofiensaal.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 12:13 PM on March 19, 2016

This is a little more contemporary, but something depicting Inara Serra from Firefly.
posted by emkelley at 12:32 PM on March 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Depending on how political you want to be, the red umbrella is a symbol of the sex workers' rights movement, so art featuring a red umbrella could work.
posted by gingerbeer at 12:49 PM on March 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

if you have an artist or photographer friend, what about getting a portrait of yourself looking happy, proud, beautiful and alluring?
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:22 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Musee d'Orsay in Paris just had (or still has) a whole major exhibit devoted to depictions of prostitution and sex work in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I saw it, and there were a number of works that would fit the "subtle" angle you're going for. I couldn't find a complete exhibition catalog, but if you can find one, a perusal of the offerings could yield fruit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:19 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Depending on how you feel about cubist quasi-nudity, there's always Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:38 PM on March 19, 2016

I like this small oil painting of Empress Theodora. It speaks of power.
posted by OrangeDisk at 7:08 PM on March 19, 2016

Ona Munson as Belle Watling from Gone With the Wind.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:50 PM on March 19, 2016

Buy a used copy of Rent Girl, slice out your favorite page or panel with an exacto knife and the same knife to cut the page to frame size, using the loose glass panel of the frame as a guide.
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:35 AM on March 20, 2016

I have been following WhoresOfYore on Twitter for a while, and she (relatively confident the poster is a woman) is a fountain of knowledge, and often posts images that meet your request. She is also responsive to questions.
posted by terrapin at 6:00 AM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Perhaps something will strike your fancy Here

Great question, I went looking for some inspiration in $pread Magazine or Working It both publications made by and for sex workers. I will be following this thread.
posted by abhardcastle at 8:34 AM on March 20, 2016

What about a picture of Nell Gwyn? She was an acclaimed actress, Charles the Second's mistress and a folk hero in Restoration England. Some of the pictures of her are nude, but many of them aren't; I like this one (though this copy has a watermark) and this one.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 8:32 AM on March 21, 2016

Here's a list of 7 famous people who did sex work (and there are lots more if you google around)- so perhaps a portrait of one of them?
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:12 PM on March 21, 2016