But hiding it does not make it disappear. Suppressing art which is seen as disgusting is dangerous, too. Works by Egon Schiele and Picasso were reviled by the Nazis. Artists who were seen as 'degenerate' in Nazi Germany were hounded into exile or killed in concentration camps. Delight and disgust Sex, more than any other aspect of our lives, encapsulates the paradox of disgust.
Sex is both delightful and disgusting.
When confronted with this in the cold light of day rather than in the heat of the moment, we often become uncomfortable. Marlene Dumas paints explicit pictures of men and women displaying their sexual organs. In order to be able to appreciate the beauty of the shapes in Dumas's work, we need to suspend our sense of disgust about the naked body and the genitals, just as we have to suspend our sense of disgust when we have sex. Lucas believes that sex, like life, is a contamination process. By staying pure, she argues, you gain nothing.