The Paris-based artist Eric Ecrement was born in Constantine in eastern Algeria, and grew up in the east of France. He studied at the Beaux-arts in Nancy, where he experimented with metal sculpture, followed by a book – later burned – featuring sexual machines to explore the pleasure of an imaginary woman. The artist who inspired him the most at the time was Pierre Klossovski and his relationship with his wife Denise.

Of his work Ecrement writes, ‘I paint in my apartment, on the floor of the living room, on big sheets. I exhibit very rarely, probably because I’m not very comfortable in public, probably also because I’m a bit lazy. Those who follow my work can see it on social networks, though I did participate in a collective exhibition in Paris in 2019 at Art Factory, following a collaboration with Le Bateau magazine and Jessica Rispal’s artistic project “Les crocs électriques” (Electric Fangs). I am intrigued by the emptiness of Japanese art, by the irony of Toshio Saeki, by Max Ernst’s collages and Balthus’s guitar lesson, by the sweet drawings of Stu Mead and the young women of Tom of Beijing, and by a landscape in which I hear the whispers of my wife. I see my artistic work as a diary, the diary of my love life with V. Most of my drawings are small format, like the pages of my diary. Selling drawings to other artists and people who appreciate my work gives it an infinite dimension, rather like a seminal dispersion.’

In 2018 blogger Elisabeth Brennan wrote of Ecrement’s drawings, ‘His work is almost obsessive, its common thread is a woman, probably his woman, the origin of his fantasies. His muse is represented in dreamlike, surreal scenes populated sometimes by men, but also by gnomes, satyrs, grotesque characters from the depths of the collective imagination. Though the muse may at first sight look as though she is being abused, it is most often she who leads the way.’

For his online presence, Eric Ecrement uses the pseudonym Rajah Foo, and you can see more of his work on his website here.

We are very grateful to Hans-Jürgen Döpp for these images; Hans-Jürgen, the compiler of many books on erotic art, curates the Venusberg online gallery and bookshop which you can find here.