The Art of Stefan - 3

Stefan's experiments with morphing Muscle Men (see Part 1), and 'Joey' (see Part 2) don't really prepare you for this extraordinary art which explores the design and futuristic thinking of the 1930's. Not just in the obvious references to Art Deco styling but the cinematic art of the time like 'Metropolis' and 'Things To Come', which seem to espouse contradictory visions relating to science and technology but described intensely technological futures at a time when the power of electronics was unknown.

 Into this he pitches nearly-naked soldiers (depicted à la Joey) who scale skyscrapers and iconic landmarks in defiance of the futuristic, buzzy, airship-like craft who threaten freedom. It's an elegant vehicle for drawing big, muscular men in intensely erotic poses. The dangerous missions they undertake reinforce their naked vulnerability and by implication their heroism.

 In this case it's a Godzilla-like monster that threatens modernity,
 but as always a single Super-hero is all it takes to save the city,
with only the help of a puny mega-super-blaster.

Not entirely surprisingly the imagery also plunders the debris of 1930's totalitarianism as well,
with these grim, forbidding  monoliths and brutalist architecture
These allusions neatly epitomise the enemies of freedom and artistic beauty
that threaten this particular brave new world. 

The forward looking hopes and fears of the 30's later evolved into ideas of a future 'cleansed' of 'bad technology' like atomic bombs and gas warfare, based instead on relatively primitive technology.
It spawned numerous sci-fi novels which idealised low technology or saw it as an inevitable consequence of mankind's inability to channel science into purely beneficial channels.

The heroes nakedness in Stefan's images seems to chime with these ideas.

These ideas were the fore-runners of what we call Steam Punk nowadays and Stefan is still mining this seam at Deviant Art today (link below), but sadly he has given up lacing it with erotic heroes.

 Tom the Trooper above is obviously derived from Joey and from Stefan's interest in skimpily dressed body builders. He brings those threads together in this Art Deco influenced poster design that visualises Superheroes stripped to their satin G-strings and competing for audience approval like needy beefcake.

Electro Nick has a prouder demeanour.
It isn't just the architecture and weaponry that's futuristic and given Stefan's sexy enhancements of body-builders posing gear it's not surprising that he visualises some pretty startling uniforms for his Superheroes. Like Nick's skin-tight crop-top (somewhat in the style of the 'Gladiators' TV show), plunging skimpy G-strings  in shiny sheer fabric (which sadly were not a feature of that program)
- plus Marigold gloves for when the going gets dirty.

Stefan visualises law enforcement Officers going similarly equipped and it's delicious to imagine our local Cops having to change into these uniforms down at the Police Station at the start of each shift. The prospect of being confronted by one doesn't bear thinking about, although these characters seem slightly less than heroically endowed. Which perhaps is only to be expected in clothes like that.
I can imagine some good-natured comparisons of 'fit' before setting out on patrol.

That encounter with a member of the public is imagined in futuristic terms here. The face of the offender tells us that the intimidating aura of the traffic cop is undiminished by his provocative kit. Arguably the reverse, this ones a pretty muscular specimen and is showing quite a lot down below.
The beckoning finger bodes ill.

Of course, we haven't seen what the driver/pilot's got yet!

I can't say if the 'speed' limit is a deliberate joke,
light years are a measure of distance of course, not speed.
There's similar confusion in the next image.

This picture also draws on Art Deco design and (I suspect) those photos of sweethearts reunited at the end of WW2 for it's inspiration. Flipping it into a gay context looks light-hearted, but given the military attitudes to gays at that time it's subversive too in an inoffensive way. 

The classic, striking imagery of the ship (which isn't military!) steals the show somewhat.

~

To finish, a selection of Stefan's photo manips 

which don't really belong alongside his bodybuilder morphs.

 As far as I can tell there's no 'message' in this picture, it's a collection of beautiful things,

not least the arched torso of a man removing his top, which is why I chose to use it.

There's a smidgeon of fetish in the beads that loop around his body,

a suggestion of the Harem perhaps and the servitude that implies.

Mainly it's just a nice picture, don't ask me what the Dutch is!

I have a feeling that Stefan has borrowed this Saint's figure from somewhere else 

but it's still a stunning physique, no wonder the archers missed their mark!

Notice that one arrow has pierced the pectoral muscle and re-emerged again,

it's as though it's been inserted by hand.

There's no doubting Stefan's own hand in the skimpy loin cloth 

which only just covers the male organ and appears to be draped over it at the top.

The background of (tidily) ruined city is a pleasant enough cliche,

the ethereal stub of arch just behind Sebastian might reference the celestial city.

There's a much more 'down to earth' flavour in this attractive image as two muscular Gladiators watch another man bathe. Logically this would be another Gladiator rather than a slave or more senior member of the establishment, but it's a rather elaborate bath for that class. I don't think Stefan is a slave to such matters and you can make your own interpretation. The nudity of the watchers suggests a lascivious mood, so they won't have missed that the bather is sporting an erection. In fact their legs are entwined as though rubbing against each other. Methinks hi-jinks are afoot.

Stefan's multi-faceted work was pioneering in it's way. His images are mildly erotic by modern standards, but the muscle morphs falling out of their briefs (shown in Part 1) were outrageous in their day. His sense of style pictures makes his pictures attractive to view and there is usually an element in them that is thought- or fantasy-provoking. His occasional fetish by-ways are fun.


Stefan continues to work on design-rich, fantasy images,
but does not have any erotic content in his current work.
see Stefan at Deviant Art

Read Stefan's story from Part 1 (Muscle Art), Part 2 (Joey)