Brussels, a dignified host to many European institutions, has been taken over by eroticism. The streets are dominated by images of frolicking, naked Brigitte Bardot look-a-likes and other ladies in bondage gear.
These comic-strip bombshells are on show in a new provocative exhibition of 1960s comic-strip art. The "Sexties", which has just opened at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, is a no-holds-barred feast of seduction and sex splashed across giant, colourful graphics.
Only for adults
The lavish displays and high-speed cartoons of busty belles astride motorbikes shows the radical leap that the "ninth art form" made during the decade of the pill, rock'n'roll and Jimi Hendrix.
"Comic strips had been considered as a minor art form but they really came of age in the sixties," says curator Pierre Sterckx. "They became erotic and for the first time, they targeted adults who were living through the sexual revolution of their day."
Barbarella babe
Frenchman Jean-Claude Forest unleashed the first shockwave in 1962 by creating 'Barbarella', a heroine inspired by Brigitte Bardot. The huge scandal and success of this first-ever 'adult strip', with Barbarella as the embodiment of the modern, emancipated woman, later inspired French film director Roger Vadim to make his cult movie starring Jane Fonda.
"People don't realise the huge impact that this art form had," says Pierre Sterckx, pointing to a Technicolor mural of Pravda, a flame-haired action-heroine based on the French chanteuse Françoise Hardy.
"It looks like Pop Art but some of these cartoons came before the works of artists like Andy Warhol." Pravda's creator, Guy Peellaert, later went on to design posters for films such as 'Taxi Driver' and album covers for the Rolling Stones ('It's Only Rock and Roll').
SM
But there are also more uncomfortable images among the pop-art exuberance. Guido Crepax, an Italian known for his fine-lined black and white graphics, often blurred the boundary between eroticism and sado-masochism.
His 'Valentina', inspired by actress Louise Brooks, is often shown as the willing sex-slave in bondage scenarios. "It's true that Crepax crosses a line, but even his women are strong characters who are in control of the scenario," the curator explains.
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