bondage
Thomas Ruff is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as «a master of edited and reimagined images».
Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist professionally known by the mononym Arākī. Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.
Marlene Dumas is a Dutch artist of South African origin. She is known for her figurative paintings that explore themes of identity, race, gender, and sexuality.
Dumas studied at the University of Cape Town and later moved to the Netherlands, where she earned a degree from the Ateliers '63 in Haarlem. Her early work was heavily influenced by the political and social climate in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Dumas' paintings often depict people in various states of vulnerability, intimacy, and emotion. Her works are characterized by loose, gestural brushstrokes, and a limited color palette. She frequently draws inspiration from popular culture, news media, and art history, often appropriating and reimagining images from these sources.
Dumas has exhibited her work extensively, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Tate Modern in London. She has also received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Johannes Vermeer Award in 2012 and the Premium Imperiale in 2018.
Phillis Wheatley or Phillis Wheatley Peters was an American poet born in Africa.
A native of West Africa, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped as a young child and sold as a slave in 1761 to John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston. They chose the name Phyllis for her in honor of the ship on which the girl traveled the Middle Passage. The Wheatley family quickly recognized her intellectual abilities and encouraged her study of the classics. Phyllis began writing poems and verses, and some were even published when she was only 14 years old.
However, the 18th-century public had great difficulty accepting a black slave girl as a writer. In May 1773, Wheatley traveled to London with her master's son. There her first book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published. Wheatley's literary talent and personal qualities contributed to her great social success in London. In the fall of 1773, Phyllis returned to the United States and Wheatley was granted her freedom. She married, but lived only 31 years.
Wheatley's most famous poem today, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" (1768), directly addresses the theme of slavery.
Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego was a Portuguese-British visual artist known particularly for her paintings and prints based on storybooks. Rego's style evolved from abstract towards representational, and she favoured pastels over oils for much of her career. Her work often reflects feminism, coloured by folk-themes from her native Portugal.
Asger Oluf Jorn was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement CoBrA and the Situationist International.
