These are paintings by Danish fine arts painter Stefan Bløndal. (A Dane myself, I have a soft spot for the Danish creative scene, which has many fine artists.)
Visit his site at stefanblondal.com.

In art and photography, erotic fetishism tends to be reserved for the impersonal, distinguishing sexuality from love. When we fragment the female body into its erogenous zones--breasts, legs, behind--it's usually to indicate a sense of emotional distance that, through a psychological inversion, brings the physical even closer.

Erotic fetishism substitutes the expressive parts of the body--especially the face--for what is usually considered its generic parts (even though the body is also unique and expressive). Fetishism therefore represents a move from the personal--an individuated human being whom we know and love inside and out--to the impersonal--a substitutable human being who entices us with her distance and unfamiliarity. Through this fragmentation of form, a woman becomes a pair of breasts, a sexy behind, long legs.

Blondal's "Ma femme" plays upon the common motif of erotic fetishism to invert it. He shows us the appeal of the familiar; the strangeness of the known and the excitement of the beloved. Using realist techniques and a surrealist frame of reference, "Ma femme" renders the familiar--his wife--exciting, new and sensual. Her back, which, featured in a mise-en-abîme, protrudes out of the frame of the painting, is not just a sexy body part, but represents the long-lasting complicity, vitality and excitement of their relationship. With talent and imagination, Blondal shows us what every happy couple knows: that the deepest love can be both affectionate and erotic; that one can have one's cake and eat it too.

Professor Claudia Moscovici

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