Vagina and vulva in art

The vagina and vulva have been depicted from prehistory onwards. Visual art forms representing the female genitals encompass two-dimensional (e.g. paintings) and three-dimensional (e.g. statuettes). As long ago as 35,000 years ago, people sculpted Venus figurines that exaggerated the abdomen, hips, breasts, thighs, or vulva.

In 1866, Gustave Courbet painted a picture of a nude woman with her legs apart, entitled "The Origin of the World". When this was posted on Facebook 150 years later, it created a censorship controversy. Contemporary artists can still face backlash for depicting the female genitals; Megumi Igarashi was arrested for distributing a 3D digital file of her vulva. Works created since the advent of second-wave feminism circa 1965 range from large walk-through installations (Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely) to small hand-held textile art pieces. Sometimes these are explicitly works of feminist art: Judy Chicago created The Dinner Party to celebrate 39 women of history and myth, many of whom had fallen into obscurity. Other artists deny that their works reference the female genitalia, although critics view them as such; the flower paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe are a case in point.

In 2021, medical professionals have found that knowledge of female reproductive organs remains poor, among both men and women;^[1] some modern works such as Femalia, 101 Vagina and the Great Wall of Vagina seek to combat this ignorance by providing accessible depictions of the normal diversity of a range of vulvas.

Other forms of creative expression beyond visual art have brought the discussion of female sexuality into the mainstream. Playwright Eve Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues, a popular stage work about many aspects of women's sexuality.