Vagina and vulva in art

The vagina and vulva have been depicted in art from prehistory to the contemporary art era of the 21st century. Visual art forms representing the female genitals encompass two-dimensional (e.g. paintings) and three-dimensional (e.g. statuettes). As long ago as 35,000 years ago, people sculpted Venus figurines that exaggerated the abdomen, hips, breasts, thighs, or vulva.

In 1866, Gustave Courbet painted a picture of a nude woman which depicted the female genitals, entitled "The Origin of the World". In the 20th and 21st century, artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Megumi Igarashi and Anish Kapoor have created artworks that depict the vagina or vulva. Sometimes these are explicitly works of feminist art: Judy Chicago created The Dinner Party to celebrate 39 women of history, many of whom had fallen into obscurity. Other artists deny that their works are sexual, although critics view them as such: the flower paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe are a case in point.

There have long been folklore traditions, such as the vagina loquens ("talking vagina") and the vagina dentata ("toothed vagina"). Playwright Eve Ensler wrote the Vagina Monologues, a popular work about many aspects of women's sexuality. In some cases, vagina or vulva-themed art has attracted controversy and led to legal issues or official censorship pertaining to perceptions of obscenity.

...
Wikipedia