It’s time for art critics to pass the soap

While others avert their eyes, we toast Michael Kirwan on his fantastic book…

When Beryl Cook died four years ago there was a rush to celebrate her life’s work. Cheerful obituaries sprung up in national newspapers and across major TV channels, she was a “national treasure”. Yet throughout her career the art world refused to acknowledge Cook as one of their own.

Despite selling pieces out of her front room for around £20,000 on a fortnightly basis and receiving commissions from celebrity collectors, with no formal art education and no desire to write thought-scraping self-statements, Cook’s amusing paintings of fat Brits and their quotidian pursuits were deemed appropriate only for postcards and calendars.

A similar thing is happening in the world of erotic art today. Look at Michael Kirwan’s latest book Just So Horny, a glossy paged serving of over 100 of Kirwan’s homocentric cartoony paintings. It is immediately obvious from just flicking through that he is a brilliant artist. The compositions, facial expressions, classical references and power dynamics. His work evokes a psychological landscape that goes beyond the explicit and into a new dimension of the suggestive.

By Jack Cullen

BEST COMIC/COMIC ART BOOK

Just So Horny by Michael Kirwan, Artist

Without a doubt Michael Kirwan’s illustrations are sexually charged, quite often even pretty horny—but they are also a witty distillate of gay lust and realities. It’s seeing, understanding and painting: Kirwan doesn’t care for soft-focus and smooth idolization of beauty; comparable to Otto Dix he rather gets inspired by mere lust than high-gloss desires. His idea of sex is not about after shave and eau de toilette, it’s about sweat and hot breath.

This unashamedly depiction on greedy maleness
isn’t something ordinary for sure, and the reader will be rewarded richly.

SEE THE ARTIST AND THE BOOK
AT THE STREET FAIR 03/25

 
Just released!

Backwoods by the very humpable Natty Soltesz with the cover and interior illustrations by Michael Kirwan.

Available from Amazon.

Without a doubt Michael Kirwan’s illustrations are sexually charged, quite often even pretty horny—but they are also a witty distillate of gay lust and realities. It’s seeing, understanding and painting: Kirwan doesn’t care for soft-focus and smooth idolization of beauty; comparable to Otto Dix he rather gets inspired by mere lust than high-gloss desires. His idea of sex is not about after shave and eau de toilette, it’s about sweat and hot breath.

This unashamedly depiction on greedy maleness isn’t something ordinary for sure, and the reader will be rewarded richly.

Just So Horny. Comics, Pages: 128, Size: 21,5 x 28,5 cm / 8.5 x 11.25 inch, Format: Hardcover with dust jaket, Colour: full colour, Language: English,   ISBN 978-3-86787-174-7,  August 2011, $ 34.99

Michael Kirwan was inducted into
Tom of Finland Foundation’s Artist Hall of Fame in 2004.