Fetish art

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Fetish art: A scene from a professional BDSM dungeon in New York City.

Fetish art is art that depicts people in fetishistic situations such as bondage, BDSM, transvestism, transsexuality, domination/submission scenarios etc. -- sometimes in combination.

Many of the 'classic' 1940s, '50s & '60s era fetish artists such as Eric Stanton and Gene Bilbrew began their careers at Irving Klaw's Movie Star News company (later Nutrix) creating drawings for episodic illustrated bondage stories.

In the 1970s and 1980s, fetish artists like Robert Bishop were published extensively in bondage magazines. In recent years, the annual SIGNY awards have been awarded to the bondage artists voted the best of that year.

Many artists working in the mainstream comic book industry have consistently included fetishistic imagery in their work, usually as a shock tactic or to denote villainy or corruption. However, the effect of depictions of beautiful women in fetish situations in tight fetish outfits on the sales of comics to the mostly teenage male comics-buying audience may also be a factor. (See Wonder Woman).

Sometimes, the artwork simply depicts a person dressed in fetish clothing. Fetish clothing includes undergarments, stockings, high heels, corsets and boots. A common fetish theme is a woman dressed as a dominatrix.

Mainstream fine artists such as Allen Jones have included strong fetish elements in their work.

The works of contemporary fetish artists such as Roberto Baldazzini and Michael Manning are published by art book companies like NBM and Taschen.