thought experiment

I agree with Orson Welles that pornography cannot be great art.  Certainly erotic, even "pornographic" elements can belong to great art, as elements of a larger story, as a lure, as a heightening effect, or otherwise.  Just as phallic elements may be part of great Mayan architecture.  Or as illuminated tantric manuscripts may be artistically excellent.  In relation to that excellence the pornographic content is mere accident.  But leering at rutting cannot itself anchor aesthetic greatness.  I reach this conclusion more by the lack of counterexamples, but also by thinking through the capsizing effect that pornography would have on an artistic work.

I suppose if any art form could sustain greatness while being pornography - it would be dance.  One can hypothesize a ballet or other modern dance number involving actual sex.  But the problems - of dehumanization, of interruption, of capsizing - are obvious enough to reinforce rather than weaken the conclusion.