someone over winter break posted links to REX pornstar portraits in the comments section of my Erotic Art post (where I promised to post a lot more erotic art, then didn’t, so that post got gobbled up with comments discussing various artists, like Rex!) asking for I.D.’s (OK, I was going to leave it as “someone” just to irk Obsessed, but it was Obsessed – thanks Obsessed!) – and while I didn’t get a chance to respond yet, another commenter (thanks, texbearjoe!) pointed out that you can purchase prints from the artist himself – how cool is that?
Even cooler, REX the artist/seller includes some awesome background in the text of the auctions, here’s a snippet – “Entitled BILL ELD it was created on Folsom Street in San Francisco in the autumn and was completed on November 25th 1985. It was commissioned by ADVOCATE MEN magazine as part of a series on famous porn stars. As such, it shows REX as portrait artist in a elegantly designed portrait of pioneering porn star Bill Eld (1945-1985). This image first appeared in ADVOCATE MEN magazine and later in the self-published REX portfolio LEGENDS in 1986.”
There’s more, so check out the links/auctions – REXWERK at Adult Stuff Only
and he doesn’t just cut/paste same description, you get background on each print, like this one – “Entitled COP COCK it was created in Greenwich Village New York during the spring of 1983 and was completed on June 13th of that year. The image first appeared in the self-published portfolio REX MEN.” – again, that’s just a snippet. Check out this particular auction here: ARTIST PRINT: REX – COP COCK
and of course, the artists’ website – REXWERK – check it out
6 replies on “REXWERK”
I found this ad for the Pleasure Chest, could have been through you but more likely just scrolling through a scan of a 70s or 80s magazine somewhere. Hope you can view this:
https://i.imgur.com/E3zXEVl.jpg
Rex is among the better gay erotic artists of that era, nice to see you devote a post just to him. And I’m glad he’s still around and selling his work through various sources, though I thought his website was pretty clunky and it refused to work for me as an ‘https’ which made me a bit nervous going there.
I’ve got many hundreds of gay art images saved, the ones who got big enough (ha!) to merit their own subfolders are: Etienne; Harry Bush; The Hun; Josman; Julius; Kent; Roger Payne; and of course, the granddaddy Tom of Finland. And a massive folder of unknown artists as well.
Oh, the Pleasure Chest. I thought that was such a horrible store. It disappeared without my noticing it, and I was none too displeased.
I only ever visited the one in L.A. on Santa Monica Blvd. once, they had a huge selection of all kinds of stuff. Most of it too expensive for me, I think I bought a pair of underwear and a magazine. That was 90s probably.
FYI, Rex died this week according to the Bay Area Reporter. Here is their article about him:
https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=Arts%20&%20Culture&sc=Art&id=332536
Ah, BJ honey! Thank you so much for this exclusive post! Sorry for the late date. It’s the usual mantra. I’m always pressed for time and sleep!
As I’ve said before, I’m definitely a fan of REX, despite the images, I can’t stomach! There’s no denying, he was quite an artist – such detail and depth! Aside from his incredible aesthetic, his main aim; was to shock and disturb – S & M, leather, fetish.
I put him in the category of such transgressive artists like Genet, Brecht, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Francis Bacon, Marquis de Sade, Mapplethorpe, Wagner, Fassbinder, etc. They’re definitely not nice guys!
Your post of “Erotic Art” was just fabulous! Not to mention, crowded, 36 replies!
I wanted to continue with the same theme of homoerotic cartoons, that you’ve posted, but I had to jettison the idea/project. The great website, daddyshere.com has been discontinued! POOF – gone forever! So I can’t link examples. What a shame – endless content! : (
I had definite opinions on artists like Harry Bush, HvH, Blade, Domino, Douglas, Patrick Fillion, Joe Johnson, George Quaintance, Josman, Julius, Mike Kuchar, Logan Kowlasky, Matt, Bill Ward, etc. – all interesting!
I’m less enthusiastic about artists like Etienne, Hun, Kent, and Roger Payne – overrated. To me, Lord Iron, Olaf Odegaard, and Richard A. White aka RAW, were just copycats – unoriginal!
Oh well. I least I was able to identify all ten portraits of REX’s “Legends”! That was endless fun and fascination! Thanks to everyone involved!
Presenting Order:
John Holmes (expired)
Bill Eld (expired)
Lee Ryder (expired)
Michael Christopher
Chad Douglas
Matt Ramsey aka Peter North
David Grayson
Ray Fuller
Al Parker (expired)
Johnny Harden (expired)
Thanks for sharing the news of REX, passing away, zephyr! Your links have been incredible! As they say, it all comes out in the end. FYI – Here’s more information about the recluse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_(artist)
Here’s a very short interview with REX, that’s also worth reading. It’s only two paragraphs, but endlessly fascinating!
He cites Tom of Finland as an influence, but also mentions how he differs from him. “I work the other side of the street.” Not only that, but REX used ink to draw, while Tom used pencil – interesting!
He’s not quite accurate, though. I don’t really think that Tom of Finland; used blond men as his prototype. REX only drew brunets.
https://www.tomoffinland.org/rex-uncensored-through-1st-may-amsterdam/
May REX the artist; R.I.P. His work will live on forever! : |
Thanks again for thinking of me, BJ! You know I’m a whore for attention! Even when it’s to troll, punish, or irk me – love it! : )
; )
Wow, you found all ten of the porn star matches with Rex’s art, that’s outstanding! I remember that post but not in too many specifics, I do recall that I correctly guessed Matt Ramsey based on the face / cock combo. A few of the other names were never big stars, David Greyson for example I remember but mostly just from Brother Load and possibly a few magazine shots.
I’m so scattered lately, I mentioned to BJ not too terribly long ago about another artist who did sketches of porn stars, I think they ran in Manshots? And during the interview segments, each drawing would be divided up into thirds, with the face near the beginning, the torso in the middle and the dick at the end. Kent, could he have been the artist? If they ran in Manshots it was probably credited somewhere, ok I do know one place I could check…
See this link with an insanely long url, from the April 1996 issue. They interviewed Ken Ryker (remember him? I liked his dick, as did everybody I knew then I think) and the top third of the drawing accompanying his interview is one of the pics scanned. If you click an image and open in a new tab the images are nice and big:
https://zeus-gay-boutik.myshopify.com/products/manshots-1996-april-joey-stefano-steve-maverick-joe-simmons-ken-ryker-derrick-stanton-gino-colbert-jim-bentley-johnny-hanson-ryan-idol-chad-knight-mike-henson-eric-manchester-mark-perry-johan-paulik-mark-radcliff
But not to sidetrack you in your revisiting the topic of erotic art Obsessed, so nice to see you even if I get scolded, or scold you back. BJ has his focuses for this site but has dove into the art pool a few times.
I’m not surprised to hear that about the daddy’s here site though,. I always got creepy, borderline dark web vibes from that site and was careful not to save anything directly, maybe just take a screen grab if there was something good.
My first comment above had a pic by Rex that worked when I uploaded it to imgur but it too has vanished, they did a culling of porn and even removed some pics I left there that were mostly SFW, so their censors erred on the side of caution I guess. Imgur had been associated with reddit before reddit allowed image hosting directly on their site, they then made their site more independent and wanted to ease away from the adult stuff I guess, anyway I’ll wrap this up.
Take care Mister Obsessed, kisses – smooch – smooch!