A major new exhibition named Flesh will feature works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas when it opens at York Art Gallery this September.
Flesh will include more than 60 works of art displayed over three galleries and will showcase how flesh has been portrayed by various artists over the last 600 years.
The exhibition will be spread across five rooms themed as Figuring Flesh, Still Life, Materiality and Surface and the final room will be dedicated to Steve McQueen’s film Bear, his first major film.
The film shows two men wrestling together, with close ups focusing on their interlocking bodies.
The exhibition will also touch on themes like human, animal, alive, dead, familiar and the strange whilst examining the way artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, August Rodin and William Etty respond to flesh.
The show will also feature contemporary works by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Ron Mueck, Jenny Saville and Jo Spence.
Laura Turner, senior curator of art and science commented, “Flesh is a word that immediately provokes a reaction – it is no surprise that artists have always drawn on this tactile, organic and changeable material for its inspiration.
“This exhibition brings together some of the biggest names in art as well as exciting and emerging artists who all interpret flesh in different ways. From still life paintings and anatomical studies to abstract sculpture and contemporary film, Flesh presents a series of visual encounters which surprise and challenge, raising questions about the body and ageing, race and gender, touch and texture and surface and skin.”
Flesh will be curated with Dr Jo Applin from the University of York and will be accompanied with a varied events programme.
Flesh will run from 23rd September 2016 until 19th March 2017.
For more information visit www.yorkartgallery.org.uk.
