Fetish art is art that depicts people in fetishistic situations such as bondage, BDSM, transvestism, domination/submission scenarios etc. -- sometimes in combination.
Many of the 'classic' 1940s, '50s and '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 1954 fetish artist John Coutts (aka John Willie) founded Bizarre magazine. Bizarre was published in London and widely distributed in the U.S., and was the inspiration for a number of new fetish magazines such as Bizarre Life.[1] In 1957 English engineer John Sutcliffe founded Atomage magazine, which featured images of the rubber clothing he had made.[1] Sutcliffe's work would inspire Dianna Rigg's leather catsuit-wearing character in The Avengers, a TV show that, "opened the floodgates for fetish-SM images".[1]
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 included fetishistic imagery in their work, usually as a shock tactic or to denote villainy or corruption. The effect of depictions of beautiful women in tight fetish outfits on the sales of comics to a mostly teenage male comics-buying audience may also be a factor. In 1950s America comics with bondage or fetish themes began appearing.[2] Around the same time, fetish artists influenced the cartoons of George Petty, Alberto Vargas and others, which featured in magazines like Playboy and Esquire.[2] Arguably the best known example of fetish imagery in comics is the catsuit-wearing, whip-wielding Catwoman, who has been called, "an icon of fetish art".[3]
Many S&M, leather and fetish artists have produced images depicting urine fetishism ("watersports"), including Domino, Tom of Finland, Matt and The Hun.[4]
Sometimes fetish art 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. An artist whose erotica transcends to mainstream collectors is found in the Shunga and Shibari style works of Hajime Sorayama. Taschen books included Artist Hajime Sorayama, whom his peer artists call a cross between Norman Rockwell and Dali or an imaginative modern day Vargas. Sorayama's robotic diverse illustrative works are in permanent collections of MOMA and the Smithsonian Institute as well as the fetish arts in the private WEAM Museum collection.
The works of contemporary fetish artists such as Roberto Baldazzini and Michael Manning are published by art book companies like NBM and Taschen.