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Art

Beyond Sex

Article by Marya Summers
Published in Free Press - 1999
Florida, USA
Originally published in English.

This is one of several in the series of articles written by the journalist Marya Summers for the Free Press about painter Michael Korber. This article titled "Beyond Sex" was published in the Art Scene section.

Sensuality is sexual energy contained Beyond Sex



You'll get a sexual charge from Michael Korber's oil painting if you follow the lines. Just don't get distracted by all that vivid color. The artist uses those colors to confuse your eyes, so the images of two naked people engaged in passionate acts of love are difficult to discern.

You will get a sexual charge from Michael Korber's oil paintings if you follow the lines

Photo of con·tem·pla·tion a oil on linen painting by painter and artist Michael J. Korber in oil on linen at the Tempra Museum of Contemporary Arts – Mgarr, MALTA
Article- Beyond Sex featuring Korber
Tempra Museum of Contemporary Arts – Mgarr, MALTA

“Color never interrupts the line, but sometimes I put color in to confuse people,” the Lake Worth artist says. “Because I don't ever want people to look at a painting and know exactly what it is. I like it when people have to really look at it and use their imaginations to see what they find. I want people to get involved in the painting.”

Even when a painting's subject is an individual figure, there is always something very sexy about Korber's expression. He paints deep blue lines that gracefully weave around and through each other just the way an expert lover's fingers might trace someones body.

Then he adds all the stimulating, brilliant color, while adding the complexity that comes with any relationship - whether it be between color and line, seducer and the seduced, or painting and it's viewer.

Photo of a painting titled Love of two by Korber in oil on linen
Love of two by Korber in oil on linen

He adds all the stimulating, brilliant color, while adding the complexity that comes with any relationship - whether it be between color and line, seducer and the seduced, or painting and it's viewer.

“Just go back to the basics of color and line.” he says. “They're energy. thats why the two work together.”

Color theory was something Korber perfected at Pratt Institute, a prestigious art school in New York. But he attributes the grace and fluidity of his lines to the years of discipline outside the visual arts - specifically, karate.

Photo of a painting titled Unknown vision by Korber in oil on linen
Unknown vision by Korber in oil on linen

“You have to understand where this comes from. I have quite a few years of martial arts training, which is all about movement. Everything is always moving.” Korber explains while demonstrating techniques he's learned. Each gesture becomes another as his arms and hands move in a fluid and sensual synchronicity.

It's the linear movement that provides the energy. One line may send energy ( by shooting outward into an infinite space beyond the confines of the canvas ) while others contain it (by intersecting each other and creating finite space within the painting).

Filled with this energy, Korber's nudes stir passion even though he resists having the work termed “sexual”. “I don't like the word ‘sexual' For me, Sensuality is beyond sexuality:. he says. “Sensuality is sexual energy contained.