North African Prostitutes Red Light District Tunisia

For Playboy Magazine, German-American artist and illustrator Franz Altschuler paints a heart-pounding scene of a red-light district in Tunisia. What's immediately distinctive is how the artist captures the cold, tough demeanor of the street prostitutes, who eyeball the viewer as he approaches them. Their expressions say it all and send a chill down the spine. Then again, it's very hot in North Africa and under extreme conditions, even a middle-aged woman with a pot belly and angry eyes could be appealing. The viewer enters a tight street packed with expectation. Altschuler's one-point perspective is used to emphasize the narrow channel formed between hot, colored walls, which is a metaphor for a woman's vagina and squeezing into sexual intercourse. His distinctive painting technique is showcased by fluid brushstrokes, simple patterning, and a vivid palette that unfolds with expressive power and psychological tension. It's an absolute pleasure to look at and study this work endlessly. Although this is a painting and not a photograph, the viewer can still form a deep connection with the subjects, as if they were real flesh and blood, not painted.
Unsigned. Framed in the original plexiglass frame - The work is more powerful in person due to its large size.
This artwork appeared on page 153 of the December 1972 issue of Playboy Magazine, illustrating the article by Nelson Algren titled "The Way to Medenine."

The uploaded video on 1stDibs is coming up a bit off color. Refer to the still images for more accurate color - Best Viewed with a top gallery-style light

Franz Altschuler (1923 – December 12, 2009) was a German artist and illustrator who drew for Playboy, textbooks and newspapers, but also worked with fine art and drawing. Born in Mannheim, Germany, Altschuler and his family emigrated to the US when he was a teenager. He moved to Chicago in 1946 as a student of the renowned painter, photographer and Bauhaus design professor László Moholy-Nagy at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design
Wikipedia