Images on show in an art exhibition are so sexually explicit a warning has been posted outside.

Etchings on show in Pallant House Gallery, North Pallant, Chichester, were described by marketing director Andrew Churchill as "sex of every variety and every position and any gender".

The 15 works by the late Michael Ayrton were produced in 1972 but have never been displayed together before.

The gallery has put up a sign warning visitors to be aware of the "explicit content of the work in this room".

The intimate scenes called the Verlaine Suite are thought to contain self-portraits of the artist with his male and female friends.

Some residents and visitors have boycotted the gallery in disgust.

Joan Oldfield, a visitor from Yorkshire, said: "I can well do without that sort of thing. I wouldn't want to see anything like that."

Doreen Sturgeon, from Rustington, said: "This sort of exhibition is not appropriate. There's a place for it - but not Chichester."

But curator Frances Guy was not worried by the criticism. She said: "I think it's going to stir people up a bit.

"It's better to have a reaction whether it's positive or negative than not at all. Art is there to provoke."

The Verlaine Suite illustrates the erotic poems of Paul Verlaine, written between 1888 and 1891. They can be seen until June 9.

The exhibition is previewed in our leisure section today.