Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection [Part IV: Opening Reception]

Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, presents..
"Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection" ..
January 28 – July 8, 2012..
Opening Reception: Jan 27, 2012..
Curator: Lucas Cowan
Co-Curator: Debra Purden
Director of Exhibitions: Dr. Elizabeth Lee Kelly..
Fee: Free, Open to public..
Location: Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery,
at the Chicago Cultural Center..
CAUTIONARY NOTE: The exhibition contains explicit imagery that may be disturbing to younger or sensitive viewers.
Photography is prohibited in the gallery.

A Photo Gallery of the Opening Reception: Jan 27, 2012..
The focus here is on the the people at the opening reception..
The exhibition is organized into two major sections..
The Kunstkammer of Death and the War Room..
I am posting the highlights of the exhibits separately,
Kunstkammer of Death, click here ..
I will post on War Room soon..
Exhibition related terminology..

The incredible team that put it all together..
Debra Purden, Lucas Cowan, Richard Harris and Dr. Elizabeth Lee Kelly..

What are they looking at? Image below..

"The Death of Venus" - by Roger Reutimann..

If you are wondering what he is looking at, the image is below..

Curious Snake Exploring a Skull" (Okimono) - by Izumi Sukeyuki [Japanese]

Cales Weintraub and his wife, with his sculpture, Mr. and Mrs. Bones..

PRESS COVERAGE:
Chicago Sun Times [Article by Kara Spak, photography Al Podgorski ]..
Chicago Tribune [Article by William Hageman]..
Live Science [Article by Wynne Parry]..
Libertyville Review [Article by Myrna Petlicki]..
Chicago Reader [Article by Sam Worley] ..

RELATED LINKS..
Richard harris Collection: A Preview..
Richard Harris Collection: Kunstkammer [Photo Gallery]..
Richard Harris Collection: Part II [Exhibition Terminology]..
Richard Harris Collection..

Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection [Part III : A Preview ]

Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, presents..
"Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection" ..
January 28 – July 8, 2012..
Opening Reception: Jan 27, 2012..
Curator: Lucas Cowan
Co-Curator: Debra Purden
Director of Exhibitions: Dr. Elizabeth Lee Kelly..
Fee: Free, Open to public..
Location: Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery,
at the Chicago Cultural Center..
CAUTIONARY NOTE: The exhibition contains explicit imagery that may be disturbing to younger or sensitive viewers.
Photography is prohibited in the gallery.

Mural "March of Death" by Hugo Crosthwaite..

As we enter the exhibit, to the left is a site-specific mural, "March of Death" by Hugo Crosthwaite. This large 25-by-10-foot black-n-white mural, sets the tone for the exhibition. It mentally prepares one, to enter a very unusual show, where the theme is mortality. The mural has an intriguing mix of cultural and religious symbolisms on the subject of death.

A marker on the wall reads..
The exhibition explores the ways in which artists and cultures use skulls, bones and skeletons to explore human experience and perception of mortality. Our awareness of death while we are alive gives shape and meaning to our existence. Mortality is a universal theme in all of the arts, found repeatedly throughout and across many cultures..

The exhibition is organized into two major sections, in two seperate galleries..
Sidney R Yates Galley.. exhibits the "Kunstkammer of Death". Kunstkammer, a German word, much used in the Renaissance period, means the cabinet of curiosities / cabinet of wonders. Kunstkammer was an early form of museum: part art gallery, part study room. In the context of this particular show, the Sidley Yates Gallery displays varied objects, sculptures, paintings, books, and artifacts, where the underlying theme is not the medium of expression, but the subject of mortality.

The Exhibit Hall.. exhibits "The War Room".. with images and artifacts showing the horrors and reactions to war expressed through art..

"In the Eyes of Others" - by Jodie Carey..
One of the highlights of the Sidney Yates Gallery is chandelier made of plaster cast bones..

"The Death of Venus" - by Roger Reutimann..

"Headhunter's Trophy" - Unknown
Naga tribe of India..
These trophies were preserved and displayed to inspire young men as they trained to be warriors. The number collected brought prestige to the tribe.

Richard Harris with some of the artifacts ..

The Exhibit Hall has become the War Room.
The most significant achievement of the Richard Harris collection is that it brings together, for the first time in one collection, five great series of prints representing the horrors of war. Created between 1633 and 2007, these works of art provide an unprecedented opportunity to see and explore the relationships between the visions of these artists.
The five sets of prints are by Otto Dix, Francisco Goya, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jacques Callot and Sandow Birk.The views were created by men on the losing sides of many of these battles.

Installation "Tribute", artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, with Richard Harris..

With more than a 1,000 pieces in display in area of about 14,000 sq. feet, the skulls, skeletons, prints and artifacts of the Richard Harris collection helps us to explore the concept of mortality, through different periods and different cultures. The exhibition educates, delights, astonishes, astounds, terrifies and exhilirates us on a theme as morbid as mortality.. In the end, it reminded me of a line at the beginning of the show ..Our awareness of death, while we are alive, gives shape and meaning to our existence..

PRESS COVERAGE:
Chicago Sun Times [Article by Kara Spak, photography Al Podgorski ]..
Chicago Tribune [Article by William Hageman]..
Live Science [Article by Wynne Parry]..
Libertyville Review [Article by Myrna Petlicki]..
Chicago Reader [Article by Sam Worley] ..

RELATED LINKS..
Richard Harris Collection: Part II [Exhibition Terminology]..
Richard Harris Collection..

Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection [Yates Hall: Photo Gallery]

The Mondongo Collective [Argentinian] Agustina Picasso, Manuel Mendanha, and Juliana Laffitte create their art by assembling familiar items into three-dimensional collages..

Day of the Dead Skull - by Miguel Linares..

"Umbrella", by Laurie Lipton [Pencil on Paper]

"In the Eyes of Others", by Jodie Carey..
A chandelier made of plaster, steel and wire..

"Curious Snake Exploring a Skull" (Okimono) - by Izumi Sukeyuki [Japanese]
In Japanese culture, the snake was a positive symbol and not associated with sin as it traditionally has been in European culture. This okimono (decorative object) expresses the Buddhist vision of the ongoing existence of the soul which is expected to be transformed into another state. The skull is inhabited by the snake, which is “reborn” every time it sheds its skin.

17th century painting of St. Jerome..

Ex Libris..

Ex Libris Collection - Each one has skull or skeleton on them..

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1518 - by Albrecht Dürer [German]

Carving on Ivory on the same theme as the above illustration of "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"..

Here's Richard Harris pointing me the similaries, between the above two art pieces..

To CONTINUE..

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Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection [Part II - Exhibition Terminology]

Chicago Cultural Center Brings Death to Life in Unprecedented New Exhibition "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection" ..
January 28 – July 8, 2012..
For information, click here...

The exhibition is organized into two major sections..
The War Room.. which deals with the horrors and reactions to war expressed through art.. and..
The Kunstkammer of Death.. a play on the traditional European term for a ‘cabinet of curiosities’.
While the subject matter may seem a bit macabre, artists have long derived inspiration from death, mortality, and the impermanence of human existence. This eclectic collection examines these concepts from centuries past to the present day.

And as the event is getting closer, my curiosity is on a rise. I was browsing through some terminology related to the exhibition, like..
Dance of Death, Memento Mori, Vanitas and Kunstkammer..

DANCE of DEATH..
also variously called Danse Macabre (French), Danza Macabra (Italian), Totentanz (German), Danza de la Muerte (Spanish), is an artistic genre which most probably developed in France. click here.. It is about the universality of death: the Dance of Death unites all. .

In the Middle-Ages, the dance of death was though as a warning for powerful men, a comfort to the poor, and ultimately an invitation to lead a responsible and christian life. But its basic idea is even more simpler, more timeless: to recall the shortness of life. It makes men remember that they all will die, without exception.

In the first printed Totentanz textbook (Anon.: Vierzeiliger oberdeutscher Totentanz, Heidelberger Blockbuch, approx. 1460),
Death addresses, the emperor
Emperor, your sword won’t help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I’ve taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance..

Death calls a peasant, and he answers..
I had to work very much and very hard
The sweat was running down my skin
I’d like to escape death nonetheless
But here I won’t have any luck..

"Death and the Woman" [1910/ lithograph]
By Käthe Kollwitz [German, 1867-1945]

From the official website..
In this print by Kollwitz, the dance of death has become an agonizing struggle. Acceptance of death has been transformed into a tug of war between the child in the foreground, and the skeleton at the rear, with the body of the mother as the ultimate prize..

VANITA ART...
click here..
Vanitas is a specific genre of art in which the artist uses morbid symbolic objects (such as skulls, rotting food, fading flowers etc.) in order to produce in the viewer's mind an acute awareness of the brevity of life and the inevitability of death. The origins of the term can be traced back to the latin biblical aphorism: vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas (Ecclesiastes 1:2) [Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.]

The style rose to prominence in the 16th and 17th century, primarily in the Netherlands, Flanders and France. Though it lost much of its popularity around 1650, its influence remains clearly visible in many modern works of art, such as Paul Cezanne's "Pyramid of Skulls".. and Pablo Picasso's "Still Life with Skull"...

KUNSTKAMMER..
A cabinet of curiosities / A cabinet of wonders..
Kunstkammer was an early form of museum: part art gallery, part study room. The tradition began in Europe during the Renaissance era, as rulers, aristrocrats and successful members of the merchant class collected and displayed arts and artifacts from different cultures, continents and time-periods together in one cabinet or room.

In the context of the exhibition, "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection", the Yates Gallery presents the Harris “cabinet of curiosities"..
This room also displays Mexican, Mesoamerican and Asian art, showing a different understanding of death. The collection’s works explore themes such as the beauty of the human body and concepts such as vanitas, or the Christian notion of the vain, shallow obsessions of the living contrasting with the more important inevitability of death.

DAY of the DEAD..
Spanish: Día de Muertos.. is celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.

"La Catrina: Day of the Dead" / 2005
by Laurie Lipton [Pencil on Paper]

Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection showcases a wild and wonderfully eclectic selection of nearly 1,000 works of fine art, massive installations, artifacts, crafts and decorative objects that explore the iconography of death across a variety of artistic, cultural, spiritual practices from 2000 B.C.E. to the present day.

RELATED LINKS..
Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection..