Falling up: the gravity of art

falling up

the gravity of art

23 June - 4 September 2011

Gravity tethers us to the ground. It is the marker of our earthbound condition. Yet throughout history we have yearned to break its bounds and soar into the sky. Spirituality and religion suggest that we can defy the earth’s pull through meditation and mysticism, or ascend to Heaven through virtue. Ancient tales recount attempts to take flight or construct towering monuments linking earth and sky.

However, bodies can also fall. Even the sturdiest architectural forms are prone to destruction, and the natural landscape itself is marked by physical collapse, both immediate and over time.

This exhibition explores the theme of gravity in art, bringing together works from The Courtauld Gallery and the Arts Council Collection. It creates dialogues between historical and contemporary art on both formal and conceptual levels.

Many of the works share a preoccupation with the moment at which gravity is suspended, the tipping point between flying and falling, constructing and collapsing, weight and weightlessness. This ambiguous state is seen through representations of the body, the landscape and architecture.

The artists included in Falling Up use a range of media to convey the physical pull and emotional force of gravity.

They work with or against the inherent properties of each medium: the weight of sculpture, the emotive impact of colour, the illusion of perspective, photography’s supposedly faithful record of reality, and the evocative power of words.

Each work prompts us to consider our own physicality and our innate relationship with gravity – whether of defiance or submission, fear or fascination.

These watercolours are copied from Rubens’s destroyed ceiling paintings in the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. They illustrate the religious idea of ascent through virtue or descent through vice.

Fall of the Rebel Angels depicts a fall from grace, showing St. Michael chasing Satan and the demons out of the sky. Ascension, on the other hand, represents Christ rising to Heaven as a vision of selflessness and piety. The perspective of this work positions the viewer in the place of the holy apostles, witnessing the ascension of Christ from below.

Jacob de Wit (1695 – 1754) Ascension, about 1751 Watercolour on paper, 18.7 x 22.6 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Fall of the Rebel Angels (recto), about 1751 Watercolour on paper, 19 x 23 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

This work is part of a series called Conjurations in which Strand photographs female figures acting out staged illusions. In doing so, she explores photography’s ability “to make us believe what we know can’t be true”. The floating figure in Aerial Suspension appears to levitate in a state of unconscious submission, her dangling limbs emphasising the vulnerability of the human body when lifted from the ground. The carefully framed composition reveals parts of the studio set-up, hinting at the trickery historically used in ‘paranormal’ photography.

Clare Strand (b. 1973) Aerial Suspension, 2009 Black and white Lambda fibre-based print, 102 x 126 cm Š the artist, Brancolini Grimaldi, London

This painting is the sketch for the central panel of the altarpiece in Antwerp Cathedral. It depicts Christ being taken down from the cross after crucifixion. His body is collapsing, yet none of the surrounding figures seem to actively support his weight. Christ appears as if suspended in air, the sanctity of his body represented through its weightlessness and luminosity. The diagonal of the white shroud bisecting the painting suggests the duality of physical descent and spiritual ascent. The work’s emotional intensity has two dimensions: the death of Christ causes sadness and grief while bearing the promise of resurrection and redemption.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640) The Descent from the Cross, 1611 Oil on panel, 115.2 x 76.2 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Parker collected these bricks from the shoreline beneath the White Cliffs of Dover. Eroded over time by the waves, they are the lasting remnants of houses that have collapsed into the sea as the cliffs recede. Suspending the bricks in the gallery, Parker intervenes to arrest gravity and time.

It is unclear if she is attempting to reconstruct one of the houses, or to represent it mid-fall. This ambiguity situates the sculpture in the precarious and uncertain moment between collapse and resurrection.

Cornelia Parker (b. 1956) Neither From Nor Towards, 1992 Bricks and wire, 250 x 250 x 400 cm Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London Š the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London

“Gravity is what happens to you over a lifetime, the earth’s grip on all of us.”

Cornelia Parker

In this preparatory sketch, Guercino depicts the fate of Sisyphus, the mythological figure known for his cunning attempts to trick the Gods. As punishment for his arrogance and disrespect, Zeus, King of the Gods, condemns Sisyphus to push a rock up a hill for eternity. Every time it reaches the top, it rolls down again, forcing him to repeat the process. Zeus uses the earthly force of gravity to humiliate Sisyphus, and continuously remind him of his lower status as a human being.

Guercino (1591 – 1666) Sisyphus, 1636 Pen and ink on paper, 23.2 x 19.2 cm Š The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Fulton describes himself as a ‘walking artist’ in the tradition of environmental or land art. This work documents the experience of a walk he took on Baffin Island, Canada. The text suggests an account of a rock falling, its reverberating sound, and the rising dust it creates. It records the natural phenomenon of gravity as well as its physical repercussions. The work – a private experience given public form – prompts us to contemplate and mentally recreate this event in the landscape, merely by reading the four words.

Hamish Fulton (b. 1946) Rock Fall Echo Dust. Baffin Island (from portfolio Fourteen Works), 1988 Offset lithograph, 104.2 x 88 cm Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist, The Paragon Press, London and Maureen Paley, London

“The tower is the link between the earth and the sky, the marriage of the spirit and the body or that between levitation and gravity. The use of lead and gold leaf enforces the moment between light and dark. It alludes to our own nature constantly moving between the two states of lightness and heaviness.”

Shirazeh Houshiary

Houshiary’s own description of the work alludes to her belief in Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam focused on one’s spiritual journey to the Divine. The repeated and stacked geometric shapes echo forms of traditional Islamic art, while emphasising the construction and ascension of a monument to heaven.

Shirazeh Houshiary (b. 1955) Cube of Man, 1992 Lead, gold leaf and wood, 283 x 65 x 65 cm Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist, Lisson Gallery, London Photo: Steve Tanner 2001

These engravings depict the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, as recounted in the Book of Genesis. The story tells of Man’s united effort to construct a tower to reach the heavens, illustrated in the top engraving. In order to prevent the people from ascending any further, God creates different languages to cause chaos and confusion among them and razes their tower to the ground. In the bottom print, God, represented in Hebrew letters, sends wind to destroy the tower, as the humans flee and scatter across the earth.

After Jan Snellinck (about 1544 – 1638) Building of the Tower of Babel, 1674 Engraving, 23 x 30.7 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Tower of Babel being struck down, 1674 Engraving, 23.1 x 31.1 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Cesari’s drawing illustrates the suspended moment between flying and falling in the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. According to the myth, Daedalus constructs wings for himself and his son Icarus in order to escape their imprisonment on the island of Crete. Roused by the possibility of flying, Icarus ignores his father’s warning neither to fly too high nor too low, and recklessly ascends towards the sun. The drawing depicts the moment when the wax and feathers of his wings begin to melt and drop off. Icarus’s irrepressible urge to fly leads to his inevitable fall.

Giuseppe Cesari, known as Cavaliere d’Arpino (about 1568 – 1640) Daedalus and Icarus, about 1600 Chalk (red and black) on paper, 45.3 x 33.4 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

“When photographing people I often look for the coexistence of vulnerability and strength, which is how I would define beauty…”

Wolfgang Tillmans

Dan depicts an apparently impossible yet effortless act of balancing. However, in reality, the photograph was taken from above. The figure stands on his hidden left leg and what at first seems to be the ground is actually a wall. This unusual camera angle confuses our perception of gravity and invites us to reconsider our own physical position in relation to the figure and the lens.

Wolfgang Tillmans (b. 1968) Dan, 2008 C-type print, 40 x 30 cm Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund. Partial gift of the artist and Maureen Paley, London

Vaslav Nijinsky, star of the Ballets Russes and one of the most celebrated dancers of the 20th century, was nicknamed ‘the God of Dance’ due to his soaring leaps. Rodin was inspired to sculpt Nijinsky after watching him perform, and described him as “the dancer who makes us believe that he is flying off into the infinite”.

The figure of Nijinsky appears to be on the brink of bursting into the air, conveying a sense of lightness despite the weight of the bronze in which the sculpture is cast.

Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) Nijinsky (Study), about 1912 Bronze casting, 18.8 cm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Acknowledgments Falling Up: The Gravity of Art has been curated by the students on The Courtauld Institute of Art’s MA Programme, Curating the Art Museum: Svetlana Bountakidou | Aryn Conway | Amy-Rose Enskat Sarah Fletcher | Christopher Huynh | Stephanie Lugon Charlotte Proctor Smith | Alissa Schapiro | Rachel Walker We thank the following individuals and organisations for their help and assistance in making this exhibition possible: The artists The Arts Council Collection The Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Institute of Art Brancolini Grimaldi, London Alessandra Ferrari Ellis, Graphic Designer Sarum Colourview Ltd John Johnson, Lightwaves Robert Graham of Heath Lambert Ltd The White Wall Company Special thanks to Martin Caiger-Smith, Head of The Courtauld MA Programme, Curating the Art Museum.

VISITOR INFORMATION

EVENTS

Exhibition Hours 23 June - 4 September 2011 Open Daily 10am-6pm (last admission 5.30pm)

Lunchtime Talks Lunchtime talks are given by the curators at 1.15pm every Wednesday throughout the exhibition and last around 15 minutes. They focus on two works, one historical and one contemporary, exploring their themes and context within the exhibition. Free with admission ticket.

Admission Free admission to the exhibition with gallery ticket ÂŁ6 (ÂŁ4.50 concessions) Free at all times for under 18s, full-time students, registered unwaged and Friends of the Courtauld.

Group Bookings Exhibition tours can be arranged for schools, colleges and university groups.

For further information: education@courtauld.ac.uk Tel: 020 7848 1058

Courtauld Gallery Lates Open until 9pm on Thursday 30 June and 28 July.

Gallery Lates include the exhibition and collection and a varied programme of events, such as poetry readings, live music, dance performances, and gallery talks. Supported by the Art Fund. Normal admission fees apply.

The Courtauld Gallery Somerset House, Strand London WC2R 0RN +44 (0)20 7845 2526 www.courtauld.ac.uk/macuratingexhibition