Must-See: The Tantalizing Ambiguity of ‘Abstract Erotic’
A group exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery brings together the sensual works of three artists
A group exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery brings together the sensual works of three artists

This review is part of a series of Must-See shows, in which a writer delivers a snapshot of a current exhibition
In mid-1960s New York, a wave of artists experimented with materials bought in hardware stores or found on the streets, from liquid latex to chain-link fencing, producing sculptures whose texture and sensuality set them apart from the trend of clean minimalism. Curator Lucy Lippard labelled the style ‘Eccentric Abstraction’ in a 1966 show at New York’s Fishbach Gallery, reserving the moniker of ‘abstract erotic’ for the most tantalizing pieces. The current exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery, ‘Abstract Erotic’, brings together works grouped under the term, which combine uncanny forms and innovative materials to elicit surprising sensations. These include Louise Bourgeois’ rubber-coated phallic Fillette (Sweeter Version) (1968) and vulval Le Regard (The Look, 1963), and Eva Hesse’s Addendum (1967), a wall-mounted row of breast-like papier-mâché orbs from which lengths of cord dangle.

While these pieces still amaze, it is Alice Adams’s industrial, sensual sculptures that send the imagination to unexpected places. Born in 1930 and trained as a weaver in France, Adams first worked in tapestry, but in 1964 expanded her scope, incorporating ropes, steel cables and fencing into strange, sometimes biomorphic compositions. For Big Aluminum 2 (1965, partially remade 2023), Adams rolled chain-link fencing into a vast crinkled and undulating sheath suspended above head height. In the 1966 Fishbach show, Lippard installed the work with another of Adams’s mesh tubes inserted into one end – and compared the work to a giant womb. Today, its connotations feel more ambiguous, evoking a container or a passageway, but also more definite spaces such as detention centres and prisons. Equally hard to pin down is Expanded Cylinder (1970), a metre-long log form Adams made by squeezing chicken wire around foam rubber until a grid of diamond shapes bulged out, over which she layered latex-saturated cloth. In response to tension and compression, the materials perform the illusion of a tightly woven mass set to spring free from its binds. ‘Abstract Erotic’ invites us to look anew at the landmark 1966 exhibition and, by introducing Adams’s work to a wider audience, celebrates an artist that hasn’t yet made it into the canon – but deserves to be included.
‘Abstract Erotic’ is on view at The Courtauld Gallery, London, until 14 September
Main image: Eva Hesse, No title, 1966, installation view. Courtesy: Hauser & Wirth Collection Services, © The Estate of Eva Hesse photograph: Stefan Altenburger