Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Max

Max - Man in bondage
Max is a modern French comic artist and his work combines stylish technique and attractive imagery. His subject matter is strong on bondage and domination. This picture of a simply bound man with distinctively Gallic features is smouldering with eroticism. The images are sometimes laced with golden showers and cages but there is no leather or rubber, just nudity, sometimes set against severely geometric backgrounds constructed with tiles, stone blocks and cage bars.

Max - Stone Steps

Max shows characters interacting in a powerful way, sometimes simply wrestling, but the more interesting images depict out-and-out domination and he uses bondage to amplify this in a way few artists do. Contrast the drama of the 'Stone Steps' picture with Matt's more typical cowboy bondage (previous post) where the captor is barely glimpsing the possibilities of his power.

Max forces his victim to kneel on a scaffold-like plinth, he uses an upward looking angle and dark shadowing to enhance the sense of the captor's threatening strength, at the same time explicitly displaying for us the captive's sexual purpose. This is more than just a crude 'in your face' visual signal, however, for the man's exaggerated anal opening is at the centre of an 'X' shape formed by the gently curving lines of his inner thighs and upper buttocks. The upper left hand arm of the 'X' flows smoothly into the arc of his captor's penis linking the two together unambiguously. The curving line of the two men's shoulders and arms has an equally satisfying shape giving the composition a coherence which shows true artistry.
 
Interestingly, Max claims on his website that his pictures are not gay, just about fierce men. Matt's cowboy picture from an earlier era is trying to maintain a similar distinction.
Ah! Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!
(The more things change, the more they stay the same!)

Max - Rainbow County (detail)

There's a simplicity of approach in Max's pictures which produces striking results. The Dream Sequence extract from 'Rainbow County' shows a man being tied up. The cap-obscured faces of his captors and a few words of dialogue create a powerful sense of subjugation, fear and foreboding. The rope wound around the victim's neck heightens the danger. This is the essence of bondage - the loss of control, the loss of defences.

In his pictures Max often plays with highlighting and employs an unusual style in which the muscle shapes and areas of light and shade are delineated by contour lines like those used on a map. In Rainbow County it creates a multi-layered effect of angled flat planes giving a sense of bodies carved from a block. In other examples, the results range from giving the appearance of camouflage or of fractured rock to a not quite human, metallic sheen on the skin. The spooky effect is enhanced by the shaven heads and futuristic settings.

Max - Tubes
This theme develops into sci-fi world of scientific experiments with tubes and cables attached and inserted into the helpless captives. Scenes of post apocalyptic destruction are populated with men with partial bodies placed on plinths like statues or pierced by metal struts and incorporated into unidentifiable devices or ruins. It's imaginative and fascinating and I could devote a whole blog to discussing it. In the meantime I can only suggest you go and have a look at the website which has lots of pix at onemaxshow.

One of the reasons for posting these articles is to encourage readers (and myself!) to look more closely at fetish art, to notice and enjoy its 'hidden depths'. In this respect the art of Max is a revelation, an economical mix of technical skill, thoughtfulness and sheer erotic power which is rarely encountered. Bravo!

To see other posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Matt (of Sado Island)

Matt - Ball Grabbin'

Matt must be one of the best known and easily recognisable gay artists, but though popular, he doesn't seem to attract the dedicated fetish following of some others like Cavelo. He is well known for his craggy faced men with prominent cheek bones and cleft chins. His usual style is comic-like and quite austere with thick lines and hard delineation of muscles, it's not especially sensual. However, in the wrestling picture above, his use of situation and detail (like the hairy chest and leotard-clad butt cheeks) is very sexy.
(I suspect the colouring of this picture is not original.)

Matt - Cowboy Bondage

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Cowboys and wrestlers often feature as subjects and provide some of his best figure drawing, the cowboy bondage shown here is sensitively done. This posed composition with disinterested captive and captor's thoughtful look is reminiscent of Luger's slyly suggestive work, almost a pastiche in fact, but there's a slightly harder fetish edge. Other pictures in this series depict branding and sharing of 'warm beer' in the same disarming way.

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Matt - Cop Rescue

 

Bondage and other fetish themes are usually present in his pictures, but his approach is often playful and cartoony. Sex organs are exaggerated and prominent, and the characters often have smiles - but the subject matter is likely to be equally amenable to less frivolous interpretation - like the two cops above who discover a naked man tied to a bed and immediately unzip. This is a good example of humour 'defusing' a superbly erotic psychological situation. It's a matter of taste, of course, but I prefer not to mix the two.

Matt - Sado Island 08

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This lightness may detract from the appreciation of Matt's extensive, serious leather and S&M material, which is unexpectedly flavoured with masks, heavy strapping and oversize boots. The fantasy story, 'Sado Island', is perhaps his most significant piece in this genre. It follows the fortunes of two lovers caught up in a struggle between two sadistic regimes and learning to enjoy their endless brutal 'training' and punishment. There are some memorable images like the suspension punishment shown here and imaginative inventions - like the tubular glass punishment cells (not shown) but it doesn't sustain quite the same level of invention or thoughtfulness as Leo's story of 'The Estate'.

Matt isn't really thought of as a fetish artist, but he deserves to be much more highly regarded for the sheer range and power of his subject matter if not so much for his technique. I don't know of a dedicated website. You should find his work in the GMBA archives, but because of his humorous approach he often turns up in other general gay art groups too.

 

see also Mitchell's 'Matt' Archive

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To see earlier posts in this series, click A-Z in the label list below

Hang around.

This chained restraint acknowledges the captive's muscular strength.
His hands are safely tidied away leaving his body unprotected
 and his jeans invitingly open.......

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Matsugoroh

As so often with Japanese artists, (and for which I apologise), I struggle with names but I believe Matsugoroh is also known by the name Ryuji. Anyway I have treated them as one for this article.

Matsugoroh - Rough

He draws young but decidedly chunky men in situations which often have the flavour of adventures with police interrogations, guns etc. The pictures usually involve bondage and conventional S&M 'torture' and abuse - although it's fair to say that sex is the primary thrust of his pictures not fetish for it's own sake. In keeping with his Japanese background, artistic rope bondage, staves and loincloths are much in evidence alongside the usual leather paraphenalia as in 'Rough'. He has a fondness for multiple pictures showing different aspects of the same scene.

Matsugoroh - Spit Lube

His style is natural looking and seems to involve airbrush as well as pencil and what seems like watercolour shading (although it's not in colour usually). This creates a roughly sketched appearance with wash like shadows but there is also a solidity about his men and a considerable amount of fine detailing - look at the facial detail in 'spit lube'. There's an element of mature artistry about the way he presents his pictures with striking close-up compositions and a good command of anatomy.

Matsugoroh - Rugby Locker Room

There is a rugby flavour in a number of his pictures which always earns a brownie point from me. They keep their kit on (not always in it's proper place!) and the shirts and shorts are nicely detailed - as are the locker room backgrounds. The crispness of this picture is different to the previous one - hence my uncertainty about identity - however the general style is similar and the Japanese characters (signature?) appears on both types in my collection. You can see here that his men are also unmistakeably japanese which I applaud.They do have some western touches - such as short, spiky hair and facial stubble. The facial expressions are notably varied and interesting although sometimes a bit theatrical and exaggerated like the rugby spectator here.

Matsugoroh is one of the less 'scary' M artists, his characters seem refreshingly normal and he presents his fetish, even the sleaze, in the same way. The result is still distinctive and striking.

I cannot turn him up on the internet although I know he contributes to G-Men. I suggest the best place to look for his work is at the GMBA archives (see foot of sidebar for latest link) and other art groups.

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Martin of Holland

Martin of Holland has covered most aspects of fetish in his long career, but he is particularly noted for his highly explicit contributions to the more specialised arenas such as scat, mutilation and violent death. His best pictures have an arresting, sexual intensity that demands that you look, even if you are not sure you like what you see.

Martin of Holland - Fluid ExchangeMuch of his work is drawn in outline only but when adds shading or colour they acquire a striking sense of depth and the skin textures take on a soft sheen which is very sensual. 'Fluid exchange' shows the effect. This picture is unusually romantic for Martin, but even so, it oozes with lust while the cuffs and the hand grasping the back of the captive's head give a subtle 'edge'.

Tom's influence can be sensed here and also in the early '70's pictures which have bikers, sailors, woodland settings etc. and sometimes reinterpret Tom-like themes. Martin of Holland also has a similar story telling approach which causes you to linger and examine what is going on in the picture, although his 'stories' are usually infused with a sense of lust, fear or danger that Tom never employed.

Martin of Holland - Back Of My Truck

In 'Back of my Truck' which is later, the Latino captor has Kake's jawline and physique but the other characters are more typical of Martin of Holland's men. They have distinctive, sometimes angular faces, with prominent fleshy lips, snub noses and dark eyes. They bear a family resemblance to those of his Dutch compatriot Wilhelm Kok (Dorus). The bodies have a slender, long-limbed elegance of line and, though stylised, are more realistic in their proportions than the average muscle hunk drawing. In fact, Martin generally underplays the detail of musculature so that his men appear to have a youthful, natural appearance.

This scenario of the smooth, young captive apparently facing unpleasant treatment from an older, stronger man is pure Martin of Holland and a theme that recurs throughout his work evolving into something much stronger.

Martin of Holland - Enema

The same domination/youth education flavour is also present in 'Enema'. The artist formalises the irrigation process into an intimidating procedure using laboratory style tanks and industrial grade piping. He brings out the reactions of the 'patient' who though chained to the platform is free to writhe in his discomfort for the erotic pleasure of the hooded attendant. This work is a mild example of Martin of Holland's interest in things anal, which extends to scat and this theme becomes increasingly explicit in his later work.

Martin of Holland - Rent A Slave

In 'Rent a Slave', the youth (with attitude, judging by his haircut) has been transformed into an helpless sex object, his clothes ripped off and body strapped. His prospective partner is older and hyper-masculine. He exudes strength, debauchery and excess. The angular face we saw earlier on has evolved into an almost deranged, demonic appearance giving the picture a sinister atmosphere.

Martin of Holland - Buddies

Martin of Holland's pictures have the great virtue of simplicity, he tends to focus on one idea and portray it, and all it's erotic potential, explicitly and clearly. There may be multiple participants but they are all involved in the same process. Unlike other artists he glories in the reactions of the recipient (willing or not) of the treatment. This is particularly effective in scenes in which a group of male captives queue to suffer the same unpleasant fate. In the buddy 'event' shown here, two naked men relaxing in a domestic setting are attacked, apparently by intruders. The appealing eroticism of their arching bodies in the context of violence and danger is thought provoking and disturbing. When Martin of Holland chooses to visit more extreme areas he doesn't pull his punches, it is very explicit and in your face and portrayed in almost clinical detail.

Postscript
Sadly, Martin died in 2011. I am grateful for his help in the preparation of this article.
His site at Ziggo has gone but you can find out more at Delft Boys

Martin's work can also be found at GMBA (see sidebar for link).

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Marquis

Marquis - Indian

Marquis produced some striking bondage images in the 90's. He has an instantly recognisable, softly pencilled style which is almost academic in nature. His subjects typically have slender arching bodies with major muscle groups well defined somewhat in the style of an anatomical drawing. Their faces have a slightly Asiatic flavour, with pronounced cheek bones and chins, dark eyes and fleshy lips.

Marquis - 'Fence' series

These men are shown tied to posts, gates, saddles etc., struggling with their bonds or turning away from an unseen attacker, their heads flung back. The single figure compositions lend themselves to elegant images and Marquis has an eye for positions which are satisfying both erotically and artistically. The viewer is invited to linger and examine the helpless captive before him, to fantasise about what might be done to him.

Marquis - 'Nightstick' series

The nightstick picture shows how Marquis' approach to drawing which is based on building up the structure of the body rather than observing it's overall shape gets him into trouble with angled heads. It also leads him to include fine detail like lines between teeth for example and the knobbly bits of fingers which are normally not noticeable. However, this picture has another sort of cleverness about it - count the hands! This image can be related to other work by Marquis which links his bondage images to more self-consciously arty imagery like picture frames, Greek urns - and multi-armed Asian gods.

Marquis' work does not have the sensuality, earthiness or drama that the most successful fetish artists achieve but his best images have an artistic beauty which will always secure him a place in the hall of fame.

Marquis now (Jan 2013) has his own blog at marquisbdsm.tumblr.com 

The other place to look for his work is at the GMBA archives (latest link in sidebar)

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Marc

Marc is another artist with morbid interests and he is as single-minded as Mahoney but focussed on execution by hanging rather than crucifixion. In Marc's pictures, groups of men are usually suffering the same fate, apparently voluntarily in some cases. 

 

 

I don't have many examples of his work and those I have are fuzzy copies. They are drawn in great detail, including the background locations and the intensely naturalistic style is disturbingly authentic looking - particularly when he appears to be depicting mass military executions as here. The distant viewpoints and small scale means little can be made of the victims beyond kicking legs and voluminous ejaculations. The poses of the executioners, however, are given some thought, be they hauling on the ropes, looking on casually or intimately sharing the victims' last moments. 

 

A fascination with the supposed association between violent death and sexual excitement is not uncommon - as a survey of tabloid headlines would sadly reveal. It's not that difficult to understand and Marc addresses the subject with a directness which is fascinating but unsettling.

 

I cannot recall where I found these images, probably the best place to look for his work is at the GMBA archives (latest link in sidebar) but there is also a group called Gay Noose which specialises in this fetish.

To see earlier posts in this series click A-Z in the label list below