In the first part of our article, containing a brief biographic summary, we've mentioned that Eisenstein's early pen name couldn't mean his sexual orientation, though, in fact, many of his contemporaries regarded him as homosexual anyway. For some of them, the proof was the drawings we examine in the article.
Fig. 1. Eisenstein in Mexico (blogspot.com)
Fig. 2. Grigory Aleksandrov in his 20s (24smi.org)
Fig. 3. Pera Atasheva, the wife of Eisenstein (jewish.ru)
Fig. 4. Actress Lyubov Orlova, the wife of Aleksandrov, in 1945 (Wikipedia.org)
Eisenstein's Personal Life and Homosexuality in the USSR
Some of these drawings Eisenstein produced when he traveled to Mexico in 1930 accompanied by the film director Grigory Aleksandrov and cinematographer Eduard Tisse. The rumor had it that the relations between Eisenstein and Aleksandrov were close. In 1933, after the criminalization of homosexuality, Eisenstein married filmmaker and screenwriter Pera Atasheva (fig. 3), while Aleksandrov married the actress Luybov Orlova (fig 4). Let's mention that in the 1920s, the newly-appeared Soviet Union was probably the most progressive state that legalized abortions and decriminalized homosexuality following modern medicine's views, however, occasional prosecution still happened. In the 1930s, when Stalin rose as a ruler, the homosexual community was charged with espionage and repressed.
Fig. 5. Christ Polychrome, Mexican Baroque series, 1931 (ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog)
Fig. 6. Christ Polychrome, Mexican Baroque series, 1931 (ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog)
Fig. 7. Kiss of Judas, Christ Polychrome, Mexican Baroque series, 1931 (ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog)
Mexican Inspiration
Most of the drawings found on the web date back to the 1940s - the period Eisenstein spent in evacuation in Almaty (Kazakhstan). Yet, the travel abroad was a great impulse for his cinematographic work as well as his erotic drafts that he almost quit producing by the end of the 1920s. According to his own words, "It was in Mexico that my drawing underwent an internal catharsis, striving for mathematical abstraction and purity of line. The effect was considerably enhanced when this abstract, 'intellectualized' line was used for drawing especially sensual relationships between human figures" (ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog). The researchers claim that the reason for this remark lay not only in contact with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera but also in intimate relations with the Guanajuato guide Jorge Palomino y Cañedo. At the end of Eisenstein's stay in Mexico, a customs search of his luggage revealed many pornographic sketches and biblical caricatures.
Fig. 8. Probably, Magdalene (artlogic.net)
Fig. 9. Nero (artlogic.net)
Fig. 10. Think of your nurse my little one (artlogic.net)
Fig. 11. Here we have fun (ebay.com)
Fig. 12. Should be good… it spoils them all (artlogic.net)
Fig. 13. artlogic.net
After Eisenstein's Death
After the death of Eisenstein in 1948, his spouse Pera Atasheva gave most of his drawings to the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art except 500 erotic drawings that she later passed to Andrei Moskvin, a friend of Eisenstein, who also was involved in making Ivan the Terrible. After the perestroika period, the collection was sold abroad to become a subject for several exhibitions and Joan Neuberger's essay "Strange Circus: Eisenstein's Sex Drawings."
Fig. 14. Mexico, Laugh in the Afternoon (artlogic.net)
In the extended Premium edition more on Eisenstein's amusing series of erotic drawings revealing a process of filmmaking, tengu masks and fleeing vulvas, the homosexuality in the USSR, images inspired by George Grosz and Gogol, his fascination with dismembered figures , portrayal of the poet Alexander Pushkin and Pushkin's murderer, the pornographic caricatures featuring the queen Elizabeth I, a series of drawings featuring females raped by an eagle, ero guro motifs and references to Greek mythology, and 62 additional images of his unique erotica.
Click HERE for the forbidden erotic secrets of the famous caricaturist Albert Dubout
Sources: Wikipedia.org; vania-marcade.com; ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog
