“I want to hold you close, skin pressed against me tight Lie still, close your eyes, girl So lovely, it feels so right I want to hold you close, soft breath, beating heart As I whisper in your ear, "I wanna fucking tear you apart"
(She Wants Revenge, Tear You Apart)
In the paintings of David Murphy eroticism is not a marginal indulgence but the central force through which painting reclaims the body as dynamic, plural, and unapologetically alive. His art insists on desire as movement rather than pose, as exchange rather than objectification, as lived experience rather than static fantasy. What immediately distinguishes Murphy’s erotic paintings is their refusal of singularity. There is no single body type, no singular expression of desire and no standardised choreography of intimacy. Instead, his work unfolds as a dense constellation of bodies in motion; entwined, layered, reaching, pressing, all suggesting not a prescribed erotic script but a multiplicity of encounters. Desire, in Murphy’s world, is not tidy or symmetrical. It spills, overlaps, interrupts itself. The erotic becomes not an isolated moment but a field of energy. There is a strong sense of immediacy and spontaneity in Murphy’s paintings which catches me off guard every time I look at them. The passion is palpable and strong; one can almost feel the sweat, the heat, the pleasure.
Fig.1 David Murphy, Passion, 2024
Fig.2 David Murphy, Erotic Frenzy No.14, 2012
Fig.3 David Murphy, Lovers on Bed No 1, 2009
Fig.4 David Murphy, BBC Blow Job, 2024
Raw Passions
This diversity of body types and skin tones in Murphy’s paintings is not merely representational; it is philosophical. His paintings suggest that sexuality itself is not a narrow corridor but a wide terrain, shaped by temperament, curiosity, power dynamics, tenderness, urgency, and play. Rather than elevating a single idealised form of erotic expression, he paints desire as a spectrum; sometimes feverish, sometimes exploratory, sometimes overwhelming. The erotic here is not sanitised for comfort, nor staged for voyeuristic distance. It is immersive, immediate and insistently human. Murphy is incredibly prolific and there is so much variety in his erotic paintings; from raw passions such as seen in Fig.1, my personal favourite, and Fig.2, and women touching themselves in Fig.7, to anal and double penetrations seen in Fig.5, to biracial themes in Fig.6, to blowjobs in Fig.4. As much as the term ‘diversity’ is often misused in the current political correctness narrative, here I am using the word in the most positive way. One painting after another, Murphy’s art continues to amaze me.
Fig.5 David Murphy, Double Penetration No. 2, 1992
Fig.6 David Murphy, Hot Wife, 2024
Fig.7 David Murphy, Woman Masturbating with Her Feet in the Air, 2020
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David Murphy has the following site (his biography is a fascinating read!)
Click HERE for the porn paintings of the Spanish artist Galan Eyacule
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