Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS is pleased to present an exhibition of the sex drawings of pioneering film director Sergei Eisenstein (Riga, 1898—Moscow, 1948), opening July 12 from 5 to 7pm.
Drawing was fundamental to Eisenstein's filmic and theoretical practices—if one should differentiate them. Starting from an early age, drawing was a recurrent activity for him. As his teenage friends would recall, Eisenstein had a true passion for drawing, spending countless hours exercising his imagination humorously. Some of his drawings were published by newspapers in Saint Petersburg, and he would draw caricatures, sketches, and stage designs for theatre productions. Nevertheless, he was most prolific at drawing during his time in Mexico (1931–1932) for the occasion of a film project that he eventually had to leave unfinished.
The so-called ‘sex drawings’—coined by historian Joan Neuberger—which were kept hidden for long, abound in this time as a result of an emancipation from censorship in a tremendously inspiring moment in his career. In them we observe an array of sexual intercourses, fantasies, and obscenities in explicitly queer combinations. They bear witness to Eisenstein’s philosophical inquires, queer sexual expression and repression, and a great sense of humour. Back in the Soviet Union in 1932, he would continue to draw until his death in 1948, yet under very different circumstances.
The drawings in this exhibition attest to the complex, multi-faceted, and fascinating artistry of Sergei Eisenstein. This exhibition presents a remarkable and significant artistic production whilst seeking to foreground the queer potentialities of his work, contending queerness as an integral component of his life and work, and claiming him as a queer pioneer in the history of art.
Accompanying the exhibition is an essay by gallery curator Sergi Rusca.
This exhibition has been made in cooperation with Stephenson art, London.