Laugh and the world laughs with you

SoFA Gallery to exhibit ‘Sex and Humor’ from the Kinsey

The show of some 200 items from the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction collection of art, artifacts, books and photographs is in conjunction with the release of an IU Press book containing four scholarly essays, including one by John Bancroft, institute director, that provides an overview of recent literature and his personal views on sex and humor.

Bancroft will give a public lecture titled “What’s So Funny About Sex?” at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 25, at the Fine Arts Auditorium. Catherine Johnson, curator at the Kinsey Institute, will discuss the exhibition in a noon talk on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in the gallery. Bancroft, Johnson and Betsy Stirratt, director of the SoFA gallery, are editors of the new book.

The exhibit will explore the depiction of sexuality in humorous materials. Works by such well-known artists as William Hogarth, Hans Bellmer and Jean Dubuffet will be included, along with anonymously produced drawings and photographs, comic books, erotic figurines and commercially produced novelties. Explanatory panels will provide academic, historical and cultural context for the objects on display.

http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/services/