Eroticism in Western Art by Edward Lucie-Smith 273 plates 29 in color. Oxford University Press. 1972. From the back of the book: The Sexual Revolution in the post-war Western world has often seemed an inextricable part of the artistic one, yet overt eroticism is not a recent development in European visual arts. Since the dawn of culture when paleolithic man carved statuettes with exaggerated sexual characteristics, the erotic impulse has played a significant role.