Kinsey Gallery's new exhibit focuses on erotic narratives

Narrative and story-driven art from four centuries is the theme for the new Kinsey Institute spring exhibition, “Storytellers,” which opened Friday at the Gallery.

“It’s part of a collection that doesn’t get to see the light of day very often,” said Levon Williams, a graduate student studying library science who visited the gallery.

“Storytellers” will be displayed through July 15. It is open to the public from 1:30 to 5 p.m. weekdays and is located on the second floor of Morrison Hall.

Curator Catherine Johnson-Roehr said the organizers “wanted to have a very international show” and that the exhibit includes works from Europe, Bali, Japan and many other locations.

The oldest piece from the collection, a 16th-century fine art engraving, is “not an erotic topic,” Johnson-Roehr said. Exhibited for the first time in the “Storytellers” gallery, it is titled “Die Sintflut,” or “The Deluge,” and is by Dutch artist Dirk Vellert.

While it relates to the story of Noah, the engraving itself focuses on the havoc of the flood rather than the ark, which is relegated to a corner. Instead, the artist “took the opportunity of the floods for depicting bodies in chaos,” Johnson-Roehr said.

A more modern segment of the gallery displays pulp fiction paperbacks with titles such as “No Adam for Eve,” “Sexperiment,” “Flesh Flogger” and “Fetish Farm.”

“It’s largely fiction-based and visually appealing,” said Shawn Wilson, library public services manager of Kinsey. “The pulp fiction covers are pretty awesome.”

In addition to pulp fiction, eight-pagers are displayed. These cheaply made, wallet-sized comic books were very popular in their day, Johnson-Roehr said, and they were “usually quite sexy.”

“This was the first sex education for some people in the ’30s and ’40s,” Johnson-Roehr said, as no other education was available at the time.

Other works include underground comic books, photographs and historical prints.

One series of illustrations on display is by Maurice Sendak. He is known for his unique artwork in the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are.” His illustrations here are for “Penthesilea,” a tragic play by Heinrich von Kleist.

“(The gallery) has tremendous historical significance,” Bloomington community member Jim Dietz said. “I regard (the Kinsey Institute) as one of the sacred institutions for maintaining freedom of expression.”

At the reception, Liana Zhou, Kinsey Institute director of library and archives, talked to a full room, describing the gallery as a “part of sexual experience and expressions.”

“The struggles, the joys,” Zhou said. “These are the same stories told again and again but with a different emphasis each time.”