The Barcelona Erotic Museum (MEB) opens a new space dedicated to Gustav Klimt: graphics, censorship and the visual construction of eroticism

The Museu de l'Eròtica de Barcelona (MEB) is presenting this May its new exhibition space dedicated to Gustav Klimt, integrated into the European Artistic Erotica Hall from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The intervention, titled Gustav Klimt: The Forbidden Line. Graphics, Censorship and Visual Construction of Eroticism, does not introduce new pieces, but rather reorganizes and concentrates the artist's work at the heart of the museum, allowing for a more precise, readable, and contemporary exhibition discourse.

"This new space responds to a clear intention: to strengthen the museum's narrative and place Klimt where he truly belongs, as a turning point in the history of erotic representation," explains Sigrid Cervera, sexologist at the MEB and head of the Department of Education and Cultural Mediation.

The relocation of the works —until now scattered throughout different points of the itinerary— positions Klimt as a hinge within the hall: the moment when eroticism ceases to depend on the narrative and clandestine scene and becomes part of the language of modern art. With this, the MEB reinforces its line of work around the relationship between art, sexuality, and the cultural construction of the gaze through the Art and Sexology program, developed by Cervera.

“We continue to demonstrate our commitment to establishing the MEB as one of the reference museums in Barcelona and Spain”, states the Director, Sarah Rippert, “in fact, we have just received the Global Tourism Excellence Award 2026 in recognition of our work”, adds Rippert.

When the Obscene Enters Art

The new exhibition proposal is structured around a precise question: what happens when what a society considers obscene begins to form part of legitimate art?

In 19th-century Europe, desire is publicly condemned but circulates intensely in images: engravings, illustrations, risqué photography, or private albums. Far from disappearing, the erotic shifts to the margins. In this context, Klimt introduces a decisive change: he does not operate from the shadows, but from within the sphere of modern art.

His career —marked by episodes of censorship such as the Vienna Secession poster or the paintings for the University of Vienna— reveals the conflict between public morality and artistic experimentation. This tension underpins the intervention.

Graphics as Laboratory of Desire

The core of the proposal focuses on the graphic work: studies, lithographs, serigraphs, and heliogravures. These pieces are not presented as preparatory materials, but as a genuine erotic laboratory. In them, the body appears in process: not idealized, not closed, in a narrative context.
Klimt works through repetition and focus. The result is not a scene, but a visual operation: the gaze selects, insists, and builds value on bodies.

The intervention is completed with reinterpretations by other artists of works such as Adam and Eve and The Family, which broaden the reading towards connection. In these, Klimt does not separate eroticism, affection, and relationship, but places them in continuity. Far from idealization, tensions appear: proximity without fusion, bodies coexisting without dissolving. Eroticism does not disappear; it transforms and integrates into culturally recognizable forms.

A New Reading Within the Tour

The incorporation of Klimt at the center of the room makes it possible to clearly trace the transition from a narrative erotica marked by clandestinity, implicit morals, and private consumption to modern visuality.

This is not about adding an "author's corner," but about reorganizing the museum's narrative. Klimt ceases to be a decorative element to become a point of inflection within the exhibition discourse.
Associated activity: "The Forbidden Line. Klimt, Censorship and Visual Construction of Eroticism"

The new space is activated through the guided tour "The Forbidden Line. Klimt, Censorship and Visual Construction of Eroticism," developed by the MEB's Department of Education and Cultural Mediation.
"This visit doesn't aim to explain works, but to train the visitor's gaze. Understanding how we learn to see is also to understand how desire is constructed," adds Sigrid Cervera, who is in charge of conducting the activity for groups of 6 or more people by reservation.
The activity proposes a tour structured around four axes: what was not meant to be seen-censorship and clandestine circulation, modern scandal in Klimt, the construction of the gaze and modern art, and the contemporary experience.