Art by Holzman

Holzman - Merchant Navy 1

This Hussar advert in Fizeek magazine in 1963 introduced a new artist to the gay scene, Holzman, with a 'playlet' about a nautical thief. The illustration shown is one of the opening images of the series showing the 'toughie' arriving with his kit bag. You can tell he's tough because he's got a torso-revealing, open jacket (leather?) and a cigarette drooping from his mouth. You sense he's a man with attitude although the cant of his head here is what smokers do to keep their cigarette smoke out of their own eyes. In that respect this is a neat little piece of observation by Holzman, documenting a practice that's gradually dying out. The tough is thoughtfully examining something that he's found, his seaman's papers perhaps although I suspect it's a bottle  (see below). 

I don't have all 16 images in this story or any information about their sequence and have therefore  simply numbered them in what seems to be the logical sequence

Holzman - Merchant Navy 2

The new boy climbs on board with a long, butt enhancing stride and a determined look on his face. 

The texturing of his jacket and jeans suggests they might be leather, which in the 60's was thought of as the uniform of wild bikers. However, the presence of turn-ups and the styling of the jacket with visible seams is more suggestive of denim, a more suitable material for working on a boat.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 3

Below decks, the toughie examines a bottle of alcohol which has a label promising serious gut rot. It's enough to make him drop his cigarette, which apart from being a breach of good manners, is liable to start a fire on a boat, a danger to life and limb. 

Despite these shortcomings in character we are learning about, he's portrayed as a sexy beast. The 'Latin look' was quite common iconography at the time and very exotic to UK eyes. The exaggerated fleshy lips and dark-rimmed eyes seem to be borrowed from female notions of sexual allure (unfortunately for the image of gay men). A distinctive vocabulary for the male equivalent had yet to be developed (and probably wouldn't have been accepted by society at large anyway).

The straw-clad carafe of wine in the cupboard behind him is a nostalgic image from a less sophisticated era in the UK. You might also recognise the 'Heinz 57 Varieties' label on the tin on the bar, amazingly it hasn't dated in 60 years and I suppose the same is true of his fashion wear.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 4

In this image it seems that the new crewman has removed various articles to his cabin and is about to hide them in his kit bag, furtively concealing his actions from a member of the crew working on the deck just outside. It must be a hot day because everyone seems to be undressing. The enticing glimpse of flesh through the porthole is the calf of a crewman walking towards the left of the picture. 

You could be forgiven for thinking here that the thievery entailed drinking the liquor and then topping up the bottle to hide the theft. However I can imagine this clever 'hidden eroticism' probably escaped the attentions of the censor and deservedly so, because it's very nicely drawn, a neglected classic. 

The villain has become more Anglo-Saxon-looking in this image, but I think it is the same character. judging mainly by the turn-ups (image 2) and the presence of the two tins. The Latin look does return later but only in one special example.

The smoky effect at the left, by the way, is not the result of his dropped cigarette but a scanning effect. It has fortuitously added a nice texture of dappled light to an otherwise 'flat' image.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 5

The villain's activities are disturbed by the arrival of a 3rd crewman (also apparently wearing a leather jacket). He too starts to undress, whistling as though routinely changing into his work clothes, which judging by the porthole vision in the previous picture might consist of very few clothes indeed. The thief is horrified, presumably imagining he's about to be exposed - as a thief, according to the story line, or, in the more subversive sub-text, as a man who has problems with naked male flesh. 

Holzman's picture here copies classic, film noir imagery, with the unsuspecting innocent making himself ever more vulnerable to a hidden threat of which he's unaware. The hidden eroticism in this image surrounds the ambiguous interpretation of the bottle, angled just right to suggest the villain is getting other ideas about dealing with this new arrival. The coat hook just above his head provides a more graphic hint of what he might have in mind with the backing plate suggesting a tight fit. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 6

The crisis seems to be precipitated by the arrival of a third man. He appears to be the skipper of the vessel, previously glimpsed through the porthole in picture 3 and now revealed to be dressed only in a cap, skimpy slip and sea boots (the last a worrying link to the contents of the bottle!). At this point the undressing crewman has lowered his underpants. In fact they are nowhere to be seen, presumably lost in the folds of his jeans, unless they're ripped to pieces on the floor.  

The villain's reaction seems a bit over the top. In the story plotline he seems to think that his exposure as a thief is imminent and so goes into self-defence mode, smashing the bottle to use as a weapon 

(or it could be that he's suddenly revolted by the thought of sampling it's contents!) 

Alternatively, in the delicious ambiguity that pervades this story, the young skipper's sexy appearance here offers an explanation of the actions of the villain back in picture 3. His panicky reaction now is triggered by the rapidly accumulating male nudity and the sudden prospect that he might be about to witness something unspeakable going on between these two men, whom, we should remember, didn't know he was there until he announced himself by smashing the bottle.

There used to be a accepted legal principle of 'homosexual panic', i.e. a fear of being in imminent danger of being raped by a homosexual. This was advanced as a legitimate excuse for assaulting gay men and even killing them. In some cases the reaction hid the fear of having his own, secret, homosexual leanings exposed. This concept perversely confers a power on gay men over straights that is erotically appealing, if entirely fanciful.

 Holzman's rendering of the hunky skipper is masterly but some severe cropping seems has gone on, spoiling the depiction of his crewmate. The villain's aggressive act has been converted into a disembodied eerie 'manifestation'. This may have been intentional, to amplify the sense of panic and the shock to the sailors. It might even allude to an explosion of a different kind. However, it was also common practice in this period to publish incomplete images in order to encourage viewers to buy the full artwork.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 7

Somewhat surprisingly, the villain chooses to confront the defenceless, nearly naked seaman with the bottle rather than the Captain. It's him (or his nudity) that he finds most threatening, or it could be that this crewman has challenged him or is attempting to calm him*. Interestingly, his jeans have now dropped round his ankles and the villain is suddenly sporting a recognisable manifestation of excitement in his jeans rather than the generalised bulge seen occasionally in the preceding pictures. 

*Perhaps Holzman simply thought it made a better picture. Whatever the case it's a great image using a challenging viewpoint. The quality of these pictures in both technical and dramatic terms is certainly on a par with the emerging stars of this era - Tom of Finland and Etienne.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8

The captain intervenes with a mighty upper cut. By this time, his half-undressed crewmate is down on the floor, on his knees (and with bare ass raised in a classic, passive pose). The broken bottle is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he managed to disarm the villain before he could do any damage with it.

Holzman has included the coat hook (from picture 4) in this image, positioning it a short distance from the villain's half-open mouth. It sort of matches the sweep of the Captain's fist and suggests there's an erotic consequence in store for him, but is slightly off-piste in the circumstances.

I don't have a satisfactory copy of this picture but it's too important to leave out. 

The cartoonised version below gives a neater sense of how the original might have looked.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 8 (AI variant)

This more balanced variant gives a better sense of the drama of the moment. It also brings out the nudity of the fallen sailor, almost seeming to suggest that the other men are fighting over him (hence, I suppose, the presence of the phallic coat hook, which, in a bizarre AI tweak, is suddenly dripping!). 

However, we can also see more clearly that the fallen sailor's arm is entwined with the villain's foot, confirming his active role in overpowering him. 

Holzman - Merchant Navy 9

The thief is down but not yet out as the crewmates pile onto him. The captain's hands are clasped tightly together round the villain's neck and he is struggling manfully to detach them. The second crew member, having disentangled himself completely from his jeans and underpants, has grabbed the villain's free arm and is pulling it into his uncovered crotch, where it can't cause any mischief but feels nice. 

Ominously for the villain, his flies have come undone and his Y-fronts are pushing up through the gap and being nuzzled by the skipper's shin (entirely accidentally, I dare say). His choice of underwear makes the bulge in picture 6 improbable, although the picture below shows they are not a very tight fit, so maybe it was an escaper.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 10

The sailors turn the villain upside down, perhaps hoping to see what will fall out of his pockets, which is the traditional way of exposing a thief in kids' comics. It has the effect here of pulling his jeans off anyway, which will enable them to conduct a more thorough search (or something like that). Losing his pants also makes it a tad more difficult for him to run off, but I suspect that being undressed by these men is only going to intensify that instinct.

You may think you've seen this picture before and you'd be right if you're a regular visitor to this blog, because exactly the same picture appears in my article on the Art of Cas. The same that is, except that it is signed there by Cas. Cas and Holzman are the same person.

Another Cas-Holzman picture can be seen at the mitchmen Royale Studio blog in the 'Timeline' post section 63.1. It's in an ad, emblazoned with the Cas logo, but a contact address has been positioned on top of the original Holzman signature. The background to this name changing is a mystery. Perhaps something to do with publisher's exclusivity.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 11

Finally the villain seems to have collapsed, or at any rate he has stopped resisting. The crewmen lift him bodily almost as if intending to pitch him overboard. Their bulging trunks symbolically almost touch in a sort of low five (or three) you might call it . Apparently the stripper has managed to put his underpants back on. The enhancement and clarification of this image has brought the villain's underpants into stark relief, stretched tight round his buttocks and deep between them. 

The clues to what is actually about to happen to him can be seen behind them.  

This picture and 13 below have both been retrieved from small thumbnails in Hussar ads, hence the inferior, fuzzy quality. They suffice to allow us to understand what is going on, however. 

If any reader can supply better versions, please get in touch!

Holzman - Merchant Navy 12

The sailors hold the would-be thief down over a barrel, which can be seen standing against the wall in the previous picture. The captain takes the lead in punishing him, flogging him with a knotted rope. His crewmate sits on the villain's head to hold him down (with his balls resting on his shoulders where they can monitor the villain's movements as he reacts to the thrashing). His pose here, with the characteristic turning of the head is reminiscent of Spartacus.

The skipper's fleshy physique does not disappoint in this picture but his face has now transformed rather unpleasantly into an appearance similar to that of the villain when he arrives at the boat. This seems to be a look chosen by Cas to represent nastiness and it's been gradually developing in the Captain in the preceding pictures, like something out of Dorian Gray. 

Cas seems to be playing with a very dubious stereotype of foreignness here and unnecessarily so since it would perfectly OK for the cute, hunky, young man in picture 6 to maintain order on his own boat without turning into a demon. I suppose there's a certain satisfaction in the villain being 'out-nastied', having underestimated his intended victims. The crewmate steps up for his own crack of the whip next.

Holzman - Merchant Navy 13

The villain must have struggled energetically during the Captain's assault because the two sailors have now tied him down over the barrel with his arms and legs spread wide. The sailor who was earlier threatened with the broken bottle stands astride him with the miscreant's head between his legs. He pulls it up by the hair so it's snugly wedged in his crotch, almost face upwards here so it gets the fullest experience. He proceeds to flog him himself with the knotted rope, no doubt enjoying the villain's struggling movements between his thighs which seem to be dislodging his already skimpy trunks.

The skipper watches them, flexing his muscles triumphantly. He even seems to be rubbing his packet with his left hand, but that may be wishful thinking on my part!

Holzman - Merchant Navy 14

In this final image, again recovered from an advert thumbnail, the punishment seems to finished. The scene has shifted to a bedroom with a washbasin in the corner and the chastised villain meekly seeks the comfort of a cushion to sit on, on the bed. He's now without any underpants at all and there's a faint suggestion of criss-cross weals on his buttocks. It's possible that a bare-ass final spanking was the subject of one of the two missing images.

His two adversaries stand, lording it over him, with undisguised enlargements on their pants. One of them is resting his arm on a long pole which faintly suggests the punishment may even have reached into internal regions in some shape or form. The Captain, restored to normal handsomeness, breaks out the liquor that seems to have been the root cause of the problem. The villain hasn't got much to celebrate but it doesn't look like he's free to go just yet . You sense the affair is not yet over.

~

These images were obtained from the internet and some from TimInVermont

and enhanced by mitchmen where my logo has been added.  

 

more about artists featured by Royale and Hussar

Bondage Art by Bud, The Smithy

Another slant on the cowboy theme by Bud. 
Bud was active in the 70's, usually producing 1-off cartoons for gay magazines. 

This strip is more a ambitious story combining humour with extremely sexy artistry.

1. Cheeky Comment

A great study of a hairy torso sets us off on the right foot

The finger and devilish grin from his apprentice is just asking for trouble

2. Rugby Tackle

A nice sense of  motion and another sexy torso depiction, 

this time of the young man's arched body, 

suddenly his jeans have opened and dropped

His look of surprise is priceless

3. Tied Up

A sexy conjunction of crotch and ass crack

It's hard to tell if the young man is liking this or suffering.

4. Stripped Naked

Getting the jeans off but not the boots first might entail some rip and strip.

Their owner looks spaced out anyway, puckering up for a kiss?

5. Hot Iron

The bottom up is usually the preparation for sexy fun

or he might have expected a fatherly spank for his cheek.

This hot development seems to have confused and deflated him.

The Smith looks focussed and determined.

6. Branded

Chastened but seemingly ready for more.

Bud makes light of this fearsome S&M rite in less genteel times, 

but don't try this at home! 

~

This strip appeared in Larry Townsend's 'Leatherman's Workbook'

More vintage artists at the mitchmen artist's index

or click on artists and A-Z below

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Cas

 

Cas - Hustler

The 1960's artist Cas was an omission from my original A-Z series on fetish artists which seems unwarranted in retrospect. This image, one of his better known, probably explains why I left him out. The hustler clad in skin-tight leather pants has a splendid muscular body but Cas has depicted him as a coquettish vamp right down to the way he is holding his symbolically smouldering match in a pose worthy of Marlene Dietrich. 

It's not a look that grabs me erotically but I suppose I should have appreciated that Cas is emulating Marlene's deliberate, bold assertion of female sexuality and strength that completely debunked the 'little woman' conventions and restraints of her era. Cas's hustler is likewise mocking the stereotyping of gay men by owning and flaunting it. He oozes (almost literally it seems) self assurance and confidence. If you cover his face, the depiction of his muscularity is probably the most erotic in all of Cas's work.

Cas - Aperitif

In this brilliant picture, Cas flips the coin, poking fun at gays who adopt a façade of rough, butch-ness but cannot hide their self-consciously cultivated, inner-selves. This biker is a visual treat for leather lovers. He is beautifully drawn, casually sprawling across an antique chair, in torn, dishevelled clothes with unkempt hair and stubbled cheeks projecting an image that promises rough and dirty sex. There's a cleverly disguised outline of something big in his pants. However, his delicate cigarette holder and tiny glass of aperitif, reveal him to be highly refined. The shoulder-ribbons suggest he's something of a dandy too. 

You can also take this to be an Eliza Doolittle scenario where a tough is being taught manners by a man of a 'higher station' in life. That was not an uncommon experience for gay men back then. By necessity, they met anonymously in public places - toilets, discreet gay bars or clubs - where they were equally likely to meet a plumber or a professor, a rich man or a poor man, a young man or a pensioner, a soldier or a ballet dancer.

Cas - Director's Cut?

Humour runs through much of this artist's work but it's not without it's harder edges. It was commonplace in this era for actors to strip off and be chained up in 'sword and sandals' films. In this jokey take on that, the hapless, aspiring actor suddenly imagines that his role is about to be played out for real. That wouldn't really be funny at all - but it is sexy predicament.

The label to the left of the captive's foot says 'Intolerance Scene 1724', as though part of a long list of additions to DW Griffith's epic 1916 film, on the subject. 

It's ironic that the sadism of Christian story-telling and imagery has for centuries provided a cloak of legitimacy for homoerotic art that explores the darkest forms of  desire.

Cas - Laundromat

The 'mitchmen' blog has visited the laundromat scenario a few times recently (see Art of Oztangles 5 , 'Laundry Day' image for links) but you might be surprised to learn that Cas beat Nick Kamen to it by about 20 years. It's another wry dig at the 'butch biker' image of course but he's done it by taking a common, semi-clad, beefcake magazine pose and dropping it into a real world setting where the erotic implications of the residual cap and boots are enhanced and can ferment in the pants of imaginative viewers. 

The oppressive restrictions of the day deterred him from suggestively showing another man in the image, although a cartoon woman or women registering some sort of comic response, like that in a 'saucy' seaside postcard by McGill would have probably have been perfectly OK.

Smoking cigarettes features in many of his pictures. In those days it was a near-universal practice, often characterised as masculine and expected of you if you wanted to fit in.

Cas - Roughhouse

This image shows the sort of scenario that might have been triggered by that innocent, laundry image. Ostensibly a dramatic wrestling scene it's pretty obvious on further inspection that this man is being enthusiastically helped out of his jeans by the other two. They are both essentially naked as far as we can see, leaving the strong suspicion that his underpants will ultimately go the same way but it's left to us to imagine why. The wooden boarding at the back and the cap and boots worn by one of the combatants look rather like sea-faring imagery and since posting I have stumbled across a copy of this drawing labelled equally clearly as being by Holzmann, part of a series called 'Merchant Navy'. I am still looking into whether they are aliases for the same person.

Cas - Bar Fight

Fight scenes were a legitimate way of showing men interacting in a highly physical manner with their inadvertently ripped clothes exposing sexy flesh. Cas here seems to rely more on the ambiguity caused by relatively featureless, skin-tight clothing. A scattering of playing cards provides a simple excuse for the argument if not the extensive semi-nudity (strip poker doesn't usually get this heated)!  

The scenario is a blank canvas for placing men in close proximity to one another in all sorts of undignified states which is exactly what Cas has done. The careful juxtaposition of bulging crotches, rounded backsides and phallic bottles do the rest. 

This image contains an (Heavenly) host of hidden eroticism. At this time of year I'm tempted to ask readers how many they can spot! The most notable for me is the champagne glass held aloft, as if to an optic in a bar, poised to catch the produce of the bulge directly above. The man holding it is distracted by a curvaceous ass emblazoned with the Cas logo in a way that accentuates it's shape, like a tattoo.

Cas could not have imagined that magazine staples would make an eyewatering S&M addition when the image was published. Or am I underestimating the cunning of  the artist - or the magazine editor? It is a very curiously precise, vertical alignment after all. 

Etienne - Bar Brawl

Etienne also did a bar-room brawl around this time, with sailors. It's a simpler, more fragmented composition but offers a more direct sensuality with the use of colour accentuating the revelatory effect of ripped clothing. There is one notable 'hidden' erotic reference, however, in the pair of sailors far left who could be construed as enjoying a hand job. Etienne's men are remarkably handsome and adult (I love that dishy blond on the floor!) but they are arguably less real and less varied than those of Cas in the preceding picture.

Cas - Balancing Above

Cas loved to depict tight jeans which was the most legitimate way for a man to dress sexily in those days. The biker jacket slung across naked shoulders was a classy embellishment - 1960's cool if you like. Around this time there was also a fashion for low waisted trousers with tiny zips and this picture seems to reflect that trend. Cas, like Oztangles, was abreast of what was fashionable. The upwards looking viewpoint accentuates the effect of the tight jeans and suggests a dominant personality.

This is an exceptionally well-drawn image, breezing through a tricky perspective. 

*Compare with Etienne's skewed bar room perspectives  

Cas - Tights

Although I'm not fond of the way Cas drew eyes, this picture seems very sexy to me with a pugnacious, insolent face (which might have been a prototype for The Hun's trademark blond convict) set atop a muscular torso (glimpsed through an open shirt) and patterned tights that accentuate thick thighs. 

This isn't so much a portrait as a vehicle for erotic characteristics. The patterned tights seem to be those of a circus performer but the sword and distant seagulls point to him being a pirate. These two professions were blurred together of course in the swashbuckling movies of the day starring ex-circus performers like Burt Lancaster - in tights.

Cas - Gardener in Ledehosen Shorts

The half-dressed gardener is the mitchmen brand image and has been the suggestive, saucy background  decoration of numerous adverts and film scenes, most of which post-date this image. 

The clothing of this young man accentuates his physique in a similar way to that in the tights picture above. Here too the open shirt looks as if it is being pulled tight by something hidden inside his shorts. The tattered sleeves are augmented in this image by a tear on one shoulder but are completely missing on the other revealing hairy arms (another brawler?).

He has deliberately turned up his leather shorts, far more than seems necessary for doing his job, but accentuating his hairy thighs and flaunting his masculinity. The prominent pouch does the same job even more directly. He stands, hand on hip with a serious, pouty face, looking like a rebellious teenager whose just been told he's got to do an extra hours. 

You might prefer to see him as confronting someone out of the picture, warning him not to try and interfere with that tempting flap. 

~

Cas was a regular contributor to beefcake magazines in the 1960's but he hasn't acquired the same lasting fame as his contemporary, Etienne, although he was arguably a better draftsman. Etienne had a canny eye for the commercial and played safe with his characterisations, he was also bolder with his subject matter. For all his sharp satire Cas stays within the tradition of innuendo and hidden artifice. 

No direct link for Cas I'm afraid, but there's lots of his images to be unearthed at Tim in Vermont

Marc DeBauch updated

 

Marc DeBauch - Sonoran Sunset

I have now revised and extended my mitchmen A-Z post about the art of Marc DeBauch with many more pictures. The sample image above is an exceptional example of his skill in bringing erotica into the realm of conventional art. The hairy highlights on the cowboys torso and legs are rendered with great artistic skill revealing that body hair has a texture but it also provides a sweet erotic kick. 

The attractive sunset colouring is almost chocolate box romanticism were it not for the explicit, simmering nudity and the thicket of highly suggestive cactus shapes around him. He's actually surrounded by spiky threats - from these plants and from the barbed wire fence, which he's (sensibly) not quite leaning against. If this is a cowboy cruising area, it will be filled with painful snags for the unwary as daylight fades!

Read the mitchmen updated Art of Marc DeBauch

Visit his website gallery (more gallery links in the main article)

Kaarlo updated

A leather initiate, already undergoing various torments 

suddenly finds himself blindfolded with a tight-fitting leather hood.

Mocked by the master, it promises more unpleasantness to come.

.I have updated my A-Z article on Kaarlo as part of my ongoing upgrades of early articles in that series. I've added a number of additional pictures and extra comment.

Visit A-Z of Fetish Artists - Kaarlo

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Hasegawa Part 2

Hasegawa - Dragon Castle

Like many Japanese artists, Hasegawa had a great interest in tattooing and this beautiful picture expresses that very well. I confess I do not really share the attraction, but the body enhancing capabilities are well-illustrated on this beautiful boy that he has created.
The title (I think) refers to the tattoo design and is written on the picture in Malay - 'Puri Naga'.

Apart from those words you can also see other design influences and iconography that are not Japanese but drawn from across South East Asia. The model in this picture also seems to originate from that area. Hasegawa spent some years travelling in this part of the world, avoiding fame and no doubt widening his knowledge of spirituality and animalistic legends, which so often appear in his pictures.  

The style of the image combined with the boy's ecstatic pose and tattoos make this seem like a ritualistic, almost religious image, a gay icon.

Hasegawa - Paradise Visions 10

One expects Japanese erotic artists to depict captives in complex 'shibari' bondage. In this example by Hasegawa a fleshy young man is suspended from a scaffold-like structure in a particularly complex arrangement that accentuates his buttocks and creates a pose reminiscent of the flying cherubs that adorn the borders of renaissance religious paintings. It's an uncomfortable position in reality and Hasegawa would have been well aware that the ancestor of what we call shibari today was a technique for restraining prisoners of war with the intention of causing 'discomfort'.

Sadao sends a legendary creature to taunt and play with the helplessly bound young man. I believe this is Kappa, a cross between frog, monkey and turtle who, like the cats in Part 1, is capable of mischief and worse (with one particularly nasty practise, described here). In this picture he is offering the captive a drink of red liquid and the painting is spattered with spots of blue from the erotically-shaped flask at the bottom suggesting 'substances' may be involved in this fantasy. The sketched diagram to the frog's right seems to show a intention to climb the post to torment the hanging captive.

This image couples the artists interest in erotic bondage with suggestions of punishment and danger portrayed in a specifically culturally Japanese way as though he is hinting at the conservative disapproval of society for such practices.

Hasegawa - Ground Spider

Unspoken threats presented by various creatures in Hasegawa's work are made good in this picture.
It shows a man with his face in  traditional theatre make up. He is the captive of two, larger than life, ground spiders. A storm is raging with a lightning flash visible in the background and candles guttering in the wind in the foreground. This picture echoes the plot of a famous Kabuki play where the ground spider turns on his hunters, but the final action there is nothing like this!

The hero is armed but it looks like he's been paralysed by the spider's venom so was unable to use it. Somewhere along the way he's lost all his clothes and now he's being restrained and supported by the red spider (including one leg groping between his thighs) while the other one wraps him in silk thread (exuded from its spinneret bottom right). Presumably the victim is being wrapped for future consumption, but it's paying particular attention to his cock for some reason.

Beyond the theatrical fantasy we see here a fascination with death and exotic forms of sexuality (including bondage) whose attraction seems to hinge on the fear of the unknown and of falling under the power of others.

Hasegawa - Lion Dance

Hasegawa also uses more naturalistic 'Kabuki' scenarios to create complex carnivals of eroticism in which realistic figures dressed in the masks and impedimenta of traditional theatre create a dreamlike atmosphere. The lengths of cloth that entwine the action are the discarded fundoshi of the participants, one of them is tied round the neck of the central figure like a sexual trophy (see also comments to this post). To Western eyes it seems to have an element of threat, due to the intruding Samurai sword and the extensive use of masks and body colouring.  This work is unmistakeably Japanese, not just the faces and accessories but the culture, plays and legends it invokes to create a mysterious but exciting atmosphere. The presence of the lion is a reflection of the harmonic, respectful relationship which Oriental peoples have with animals which we in the West tend to relegate to childhood entertainment like Bambi and the Lion King.

Hasegawa - Elephant Dreams

The sun ray effect here, like the example in part one, suggests god-like qualities in gay men and enlightenment for the dreamer with the ancient, wise elephant spirits providing affirmation and approval. Some of Hasegawa's work is self-consciously 'arty'where he has attempted to modernise and adapt traditional forms to a gay palette, but there is plenty of meat in amongst it for aficionados of the male form and it's not always submerged in busy fantasy. Hasegawa draws the most handsome and desirable of men and generally without compromising ethnic origins. In style, his work has a semi-photographic appearance like Tom of Finland's work but there is a grainy texture in the shading which creates a most satisfying effect somewhat like pointillism.

His technique in depicting hair and stubble is striking. This interest in subtle body hair sets him apart from Tom, his anatomy is more realistic and his models have a lithe muscularity and youth which is delicate and enchanting.

His portraits of lovers can be stunning, creating a vision of tenderness and love that is unforgettable. In the example above a lover protectively embraces his tearful partner. In this context, the abundance of flowers, sprinkles of glitter and bubbles seem to be legitimate and meaningful elaborations,
emulating the joyful exuberance of South Asian weddings.

Of course you might reflect on what has caused the tears and why is the lover looking at us?
Is the yin-yang symbol (made of fishes) telling us of contradictions in this relationship?
Or is the look an expression of defiance for those who would make gay men sad?

In Hasegawa's world, however, even the most tender lovers (right) are haunted by ties and binding. It's as though the artist regards Bondage as akin to Commitment. This does not have to be a negative sentiment. After all, to an aficionado, bondage is a temporary restraint intended to focus and intensify the relationship between the two participants in a way that is mutually pleasurable.
Commitment can be the same.

Even the hunkiest of men can fall prey to the twining ropes. But in this image there's a disturbing hint of coercion by unseen forces. This fantasy seems to depict a yearning to restrict and control which is quite different to the submission depicted in the previous picture. The bleak setting is devoid of romantic flowers or mythological allusion.
It seems to represent a dark, soulless, lonely, sexual existence, a casting out that is chilling.

Submission is voluntary here and this image seems reminiscent of the youthful experimentation we saw in Part One. The face of the supplicant ,sucking on a lover's thumb like a baby, is beautifully drawn with an expression that seems to want to please. The traditional flower symbols unmistakeably convey the sexual excitement of both participants. The prominent geometrical patterns seem to speak of high nervous energy or perhaps the noisy confusion of a gay meeting place or watering hole.

Speaking of which! The contrast with this work could not be greater. There is no romance, no distracting symbolism, except perhaps the banana stripped back to expose the raw fruit within. Raw being the right word for this sex which is of the earthiest kind. And yet it's a sexual encounter without true intimacy, involving artificial penetration by dildo and the touch of a bodily fluid that is warm but separated from it's distant producer. There's a sort of honesty in this image, as though the artist is acknowledging his true self in some way, presenting it without artifice or artistic mediation.
The loneliness that haunts other images is no more.

The words on this image are in Indonesian and read from top to bottom:-
lust-passion-magic-love-fuck

In Hasegawa's work there is so often a subtle sense of isolation, loneliness and confusion and this picture seems to draw that out. Cat's cradle is a game for two and it seems to illustrate here the mystery of partnerships, sex and love. The game goes un-played while a hairy man shaves his body, preoccupied with himself.


In summary, I can only register my profound admiration for Hasegawa's sometimes perplexing art. His depictions of men in fetishistic situations seem to me quite beautiful and the complexity and sometimes the serenity of the world he depicts strike me as showing an essence of what it is to be gay.

~

Sadao Hasegawa briefly enjoyed fame as an erotic artist after publishing 2 books of his works in 1990 and 1996. He did not revel in celebrity and sadly took his own life in 1999 at the age of 54.
His images seem to offer subtle but ultimately undecipherable clues to his feelings

His legacy however continues to thrill and inspire.

He published two collections in book form - 'Sadao Hasegawa (paintings and drawings)'
and 'Paradise Visions' They are the principal source of his work for us.

I can't find an official on-line gallery for him but there's a good collection at LustSpiel and an image search throws up lots of examples

-

This article originally published in June 2009 
was comprehensively revised and extended in May 2019

Read Part 1 here

For other articles in the A-Z series click on the A-Z label below
or visit my artists index.

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Hasegawa Part 1

This article replaces my original A-Z entry on Hasegawa, published in June 2009

Hasegawa - Captive and Kittens

Sadao Hasagawa produced a wide range of gay art in a variety of technical and artistic styles.
 His most obvious fetish credentials stem from depictions of bondage such as that above. His pictures often include unusual, mysterious symbolism like the mischievous kittens on the right who appear to be implicated in the young man's bound-up state and have left their claw marks on his upper body*.

Meanwhile S&M clothes pegs lie unused on the floor and incense(?) smoke writhes around him
 lending an air of sexual ritual to the proceedings and suggesting that there are more trials to come.
No wonder the captive looks sweaty, confused and fearful!

Hasegawa captures herethe thrill of submitting to bondage by another another man.


His depiction of the captive man is sensual, with luscious, chunky muscularity,
somewhat in the style of Tom of Finland but more grounded in realism,
such as hair detail on his body and legs.

 * I gather that cats have great significance in Japan as cute bringers of good luck but also as creatures with a hidden capacity for great wickedness. However I hesitate to interpret their precise role in this picture, which I suspect is more complex than that! 

Hasegawa - Sailor and Kitten

This picture seems to show a man in the process of submitting to bondage - with another kitten in attendance. His face is expressionless, maybe a little sad, but the water lilies rising behind him seem to the symbolise the unmistakeable sexual excitement in the air.

The subject wears a US Sailor's cap but is unmistakeably Japanese. Westerners might relate this combination to the Madam Butterfly story or simply to the occupation of Japan after WWII. The headgear doesn't really fit with the lowered shorts but they are also somewhat Western in style. So there's a sense here of the exotic, of foreign and perhaps powerful cultural influences. His resigned face and proud posture suggests they are not necessarily welcome or considered benign.

Hasegawa - Athlete in Bondage

This is one of my favourite Hasegawa pictures. The ripped clothing and restraint to angled scaffolding conjures up the idea of a jogger waylaid on his morning run and carried off to an abandoned building site for further attention. His shorts carry the same double line motif as the sailor above, again hinting at Western branding.

Hasegawa - Swimmer

There's a similar impression of Westernisation in this splendid, Speedo-clad swimmer. This time though it has a message of modernity, reinforced by the jazzy, geometric background with it's anarchistic squiggles and paint splatters.

The model oozes youthful, puppy-fat sexuality but his seductive look is knowing, his lustful state obvious and the dangling drawstrings are openly inviting. He pinches himself too, suggesting that he's got more than romance in mind.

Hasegawa - Martyr

This image makes Hasegawa's connection with American culture much clearer. It appears to be based on a photograph that could have come straight out of AMG's 'Physique Pictorial' magazines (although the mystical symbolism in the bottom corners has a touch of Gilbert and George about it). This picture is from 1979 so the referencing of 60's imagery (when Sadao would have been around 20) suggest it was a significant formative influence.

Unlike AMG's situation, the framing of Japan's censorship laws (and the passage of time) allows Hasegawa to depict the young man's, snug-fitting, 'posing pouch' in a way that reveals almost all that is within. AMG would have labelled this image as 'The Slave', but Hasegawa elevates him to Martyrdom. He defiantly holds a blood-stained quill aloft, a possible clue to his crime.

Yuko Mishima as Saint Sebastian

Hasegawa's Martyr picture was produced shortly after the ritual suicide of Yukio Mishima, who was a famous poet and actor of the time with views which we might regard as nationalistic today. There's an obvious similarity between his memorable pose as Saint Sebastian (above) and Sadao's picture. It reflects the profound effect of that artist and his death on Japanese society and hints at a darker side to Sadao's personality.

Yuko Mishima wearing a Fundoshi

Mishima was profoundly Japanese in outlook and he is seen here holding a Samurai sword and wearing the traditional, male, underwear garment, the fundoshi, which consists of a single strand of fabric which the wearer winds round himself in a specifically defined manner. It's associated with manhood and learning the ritual is part of a young man's coming-of-age. The self-bondage implied has obvious sexual connotations. It not hard to see how the AMG posing pouch referenced in 'Martyr' might strike have struck a chord with an impressionable young Hasegawa.

Hasegawa - Impaled

In this 1980 picture, Hasegawa reworks the martyr theme with rope bondage in a more Japanese manner and the fundoshi taking centre stage. This martyr has been stabbed with the quill (à la Saint Sebastian) and the picture appears to show his final expiry with a spiritual essence emerging from his mouth, to be escorted to heaven by a hovering bird.

Hasegawa makes no secret of the eroticism he sees in this moment. The loosening of the fundoshi not only reflects that sexual tension but also represents its release from constraints, not least I suppose the constraints of what it is to be a man in Japan.

 The ingredients mentioned above, i.e. US gay culture, retrospective references and dark desires, also feature in this later, collage-like work.

It shows (left) a young man in restraint in a pose that is clearly based on the classic 70's bondage image which I have previously posted in 'My initiation'. Hasegawa's subtle alterations give the figure a 'clean' appearance, so he looks young and inexperienced. There's a sense of him submitting to the dangerous unknown (embodied by the lurking snake) and he's aroused by it. (There's also an element of that in the first picture in this article)

He is contrasted with a more mature man who is undergoing, and thoroughly enjoying, the demanding rigours and domination of a full-blown, leather scene of a later era. There seems to be a story being told in this picture, recalling a young man's passage from an immature interest in male bondage to full S&M sexual expression, with the candles signifying both his burning passion and the passage of time.

I think the creature on the right gnawing at the ropes is a rat rather than a mouse. It adds an element of basement sleaze to Western eyes, but in the East they are usually seen as clever, prudent creatures. Hasegawa has given this one sharp teeth and quite evil eyes, but it's only attacking the ropes.
The nagging of conscience, perhaps? 

Youthful yearnings and explorations are perhaps remembered too in this marvellous image. A young man has tied himself to a post and is enjoying a private fantasy of captivity. A lotus flower opens revealing it's full beauty and symbolising enlightenment and rebirth emerging from murky depths. However, it's a picture which also conjures up an impression of loneliness, accentuated by yet another cat which ignores the young man and pleasures itself.

In this picture there's a more obvious air of experimentation. It shows a young man developing his sexuality by tentatively exploring the sensation of penetration by a dildo (it's a vibrating one too, the electrical gadgetry being a touch of modernity which seems typically Japanese). I believe the picture is entitled 'Revelation' and that sentiment is reflected in the rays of light emanating from his head. These also seem to confer a god-like status on him.

This picture, like the preceding one, bears the 'yin and yang' symbol of spiritual balance and male and female in conjunction. There are more lotus flowers in attendance, they seem to cradle his nether regions in a manner that is highly suggestive of sensuality. Remarkably, Hasegawa manages to infuse this essentially, sexual imagery with a touch of artistic class.

The theme of solitary experimentation seems to reach a climax (if you'll pardon the pun) in this picture, in which pure, sexual sensuality almost succeeds in elbowing the mystical symbolism out of the way, leaving only hints of vulnerability (to prying eyes and sharp claws).

There's not a lot of artiness in this all-fours pose although this man and his sun-kissed bottom are undeniably attractive from a sexual point of view. Looking past that it's hard to avoid a feeling of self-abasement and isolation in this image. In some ways the trailing ropes and untended dildo give an impression of a departed partner. Regardless of that this young man is lost in the moment revelling in multiple erotic sensations and there's no crime in that.

More Hasegawa in Part 2 (next post)

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