Sex and the British

Between the notorious obsessions of the British tabloid press and the weird climate of English private schools, the subject of sex in Britain is certainly loaded. Sex and the British surveys the treatment of sexuality in postwar British art, examining the paintings, sculptures and photographs of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Gary Hume and David Hockney. In the works of these artists, sex is frequently freighted with violence, disgust, scatology, and occasionally even with (gasp!) sensuality, suggesting that there really is something unique about the British sexual character.