EDINBURGH.- The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art announces a major exhibition bringing together works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, one of the most important collections of contemporary art with major works from the Scottish national collection. This innovative exhibition, curated by Keith Hartley, Chief Curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, comprises over 120 works and will create a new and dynamic context for both collections.
Amongst the common themes that run through the extensive holdings of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, the notion of the body as a source of creativity and the vessel of existential, social and ideological struggle is a compelling and repeatedly examined motif. This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore the many and varied approaches that artists have taken across several decades when dealing with this most fundamental of subjects. The idea of the body has a special resonance with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art collection. As well as the substantial holdings of work by Joseph Beuys, from which the title to the exhibition is taken, the Gallery also houses a rich collection of works by modern, and in particular surrealist and dada, artists, such as Bellmer, Balthus, Otto Dix, Magritte and Picasso, for whom the body was a powerful theme.
The exhibition will be displayed in pairings or as groups with works from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to draw out commonalities and differences between both collections. Through exciting and often surprising configurations, the exhibition will stage confrontations between the past and present, sculpture and painting, expressive and minimal forms to illuminate the diverse ways in which artists have approached the subject of the body. Audiences can therefore encounter a work of expressive power by a contemporary artist in a room otherwise dedicated to classic figurative paintings by some of the giants of modern art, a visceral sculpture by Louise Bourgeois alongside the work of Marcel Duchamp or juxtapositions between Rachel Whiteread’s contemplative objects with the performative and transformative work of Bruce Nauman.
Since 1994, the D.Daskalopoulos Collection has developed an extraordinary and rich body of iconic artworks that collectively express a personal vision and sensibility informed by the artistic practice of recent decades. Many of the most significant names in post-war and contemporary art are represented - figures whose output and ideas have shaped the way in which subsequent generations of artists have developed and others continue to emerge.
Dr. Simon Groom, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art comments: “We are delighted to be working with the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, and the opportunity to showcase the national collection alongside this world-class collection is a major coup for the SNGMA. It allows us to show the very best of international contemporary art to the Scottish public whilst continuing our innovative use of the collection to produce a show that will be daring, surprising and of international significance.”
Some 60 works of contemporary art by over twenty artists have been selected from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection including pieces by internationally renowned artists such as Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Gober, Paul McCarthy, Ana Mendieta, Mike Kelley, Sarah Lucas and Paul McCarthy. The exhibition will highlight the significance of the body as a theme in twentieth and twenty-first century art practice and will enable audiences to view many world-class artworks that have never before been seen in Scotland.
