Tate
Britain presents this wide-range exhibition about the mournful,
thrilling, comic and perverse uses of ruins in art from the seventeenth
century to the present day. John Martin's "The Destruction of Pompeii
and Herculaneum 1822" recreates historical disaster while Gustave Dore's
engraving The New Zealander 1872 shows a ruined London...
comunicato stampa
curated by Brian Dillon, Emma Chambers, Amy Concannon
Ruin Lust, an exhibition at Tate Britain from 4 March 2014, offers a
guide to the mournful, thrilling, comic and perverse uses of ruins in
art from the seventeenth century to the present day. The exhibition is
the widest-ranging on the subject to date and includes over 100 works by
artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, John Martin, Eduardo
Paolozzi, Rachel Whiteread and Tacita Dean.
The exhibition begins in the midst of the craze for ruins that
overtook artists, writers and architects in the eighteenth century.
J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were among those who toured Britain in
search of ruins and picturesque landscapes, producing works such as
Turner’s Tintern Abbey: The Crossing and Chancel, Looking towards the
East Window 1794, and Constable’s Sketch for ‘Hadleigh Castle’ c.1828–9.
This ruinous heritage has been revisited – and sometimes mocked – by
later artists such as Keith Arnatt, who photographed the juxtaposition
of historic and modern elements at picturesque sites for his deadpan
series A.O.N.B.(Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) 1982–4, and John
Latham whose sculpture Five Sisters Bing 1976, which was part of a
project to turn post-industrial shale heaps in Scotland into monuments.
Classical ruins have a continued presence in the work of Eduardo
Paolozzi, Ian Hamilton Finlay and John Stezaker. In works such as Keith
Coventry’s Heygate Estate 1995 and Rachel Whiteread’s Demolished – B:
Clapton Park Estate 1996, which shows the demolition of Hackney tower
blocks, we see Modernist architectural dreams destroyed.
The exhibition explores ruination through both the slow picturesque
decay and abrupt apocalypse. John Martin’s The Destruction of Pompeii
and Herculaneum 1822 recreates historical disaster while Gustave Doré’s
engraving The New Zealander 1872 shows a ruined London. The cracked dome
of St Paul’s Cathedral in the distance was a scene partly realised
during the Blitz.
Ruin Lust will include work provoked by the wars of the twentieth
century, including Graham Sutherland’s Devastation series 1940–1, which
depicts the aftermath of the Blitz and Jane and Louise Wilson’s 2006
photographs of the Nazis’ defensive Atlantic Wall. Paul Nash’s
photographs of surreal fragments in the 1930s and 40s, or Jon Savage’s
images of a desolate London in the late 1970s show how artists also view
ruins as zones of pure potential, where the world must be rebuilt or
reimagined.
The exhibition will include rooms devoted to Tacita Dean and Gerard
Byrne. Dean’s nostalgic film installation Kodak 2006 explores the ruin
of the image, as the technology of 16 mm film becomes obsolescent. In
1984 and Beyond 2005–7, Byrne reimagines a future that might have been.
The installation presents a re-enactment of a discussion, published in
Playboy in 1963, in which science fiction writers – including Isaac
Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke – speculate about what the
world might be like in 1984.
This transhistorical exhibition is curated by writer and critic
Brian Dillon; Emma Chambers, Curator of Modern British Art; and Amy
Concannon, Assistant Curator of British Art, 1790–1850. It will be
accompanied by a book and a programme of talks and events in the
gallery.
Banner image credits: Louise Wilson, Jane Wilson Azeville 2006 © Jane and Louise Wilson, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York
Related events
Curator’s tour: Ruin Lust with Brian Dillon
Friday 28 March 2014, 18.30 – 20.30
For further information contact Kate Moores or Alexandra Jacobs, Tate Press Office
Call +44(0)20 7887 4906/8732 Email kate.moores@tate.org.uk / alexandra.jacobs@tate.org.uk
Preview 3 March 2014
Tate Britain
Millbank London SW1P 4RG
Opening times
Every day, 10.00–18.00. Last admission and ticket sales for special exhibitions is at 17.15
Adult £11.00 (without donation £10.00)
Concession £9.50 (without donation £8.60)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
Additional booking fee of £1.75 (£2 via telephone) per transaction applies
Fonte:
segnala:
amalia di Lanno
