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  • Margaret Harrison, 'Banana Woman' 1971
  • Donald McGill A Stick of Rock Cock a cartoon of a man standing on the beach holding an enormous stick of rock sweet at his crotch pointing upwards
  • Sarah Lucas, 'Chicken Knickers' 1997
  • Margaret Harrison, 'Banana Woman' 1971

    Margaret Harrison
    Banana Woman 1971
    Watercolour, coloured pencil and graphite on medium-heavy weight white wove paper
    support: 518 x 637 mm
    Purchased 2008 Margaret F. Harrison

    View the main page for this artwork

  • Donald McGill A Stick of Rock Cock a cartoon of a man standing on the beach holding an enormous stick of rock sweet at his crotch pointing upwards

    Donald McGill
    A Stick of Rock, Cock?

    British Cartoon Archive, University Kent 
    © Donald McGill Archive. www.donaldmcgill.info
     

  • Sarah Lucas, 'Chicken Knickers' 1997

    Sarah Lucas
    Chicken Knickers 1997
    Photograph on paper
    image: 426 x 426 mm
    Purchased 1998 Sarah Lucas

    View the main page for this artwork

Robust sexual humour has had a highly visible role to play in British culture, from the low-life narratives of Hogarth, through the gross bodies of Rowlandson and Gillray, to Benny Hill, Are You Being Served? and Kenny Everett. Rude puns, sexual jokes and erotic imagery have a strong role to play in much contemporary art, often informed by a critical and self-aware sexual politics.

Please be aware that this section of the exhibition contains some sexually explicit images and language.