The Human Body in Art from 20th & 21st Centuries in “From Death to Death and Other Small Tales”

“From Death to Death and Other Small Tales” is a show that puts together a selection of D. Daskalopoulos Collection’s works —one of the most outstanding private collections in terms of modern and contemporary art—, as well as master pieces from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA). This interesting display gathers nearly 130 artworks, thus creating a new and dynamic context for both collections.

By using surprising juxtapositions, the exhibit reflects the meaning of human body in artworks created between the 20^th and 21^st centuries and sheds light on many works that had never been seeing in Scotland. Many of the most acclaimed names of modern and contemporary art are represented in the exhibition —figures that cleared the way with their ideas and works for subsequent generations.

D. Daskalopoulos Collection is paired with works from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in order to outline similarities and differences between both collections. With innovating and sometimes surprising configurations, the display showcases confrontations between past and present, sculpture and painting, expressionist and minimal forms, so as to light up the different ways in which artists have tackled the human body topic. 

For each of the nearly 70 modern-art works from SNGMA, there is one contemporary-art piece from D.Daskalopoulos Collection —Max Ernst and American artist Robert Gober, or Otto Dix and Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois— in pairs, just like a sort of pas de deux. The connection between past and present is spectacular; probably one of the most interesting couple is the one made up of Magritte, with “Le Miroir magique” (the magic mirror) that only reflects words “corps humain”, and Bruce Nauman’s wax ear. This object is also a tied-up rope reel, used by the artist to create a words combination titled “Knot an Ear” (“tied-up ear” or “it’s not an ear”). Through wordplay and visual gags, Nauman establishes a relation with conceptualism, started with Duchamp and Magritte.

Some of the artists are: Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Ana

Mendieta (Cuba), Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Mike Kelley, Sarah Lucas, Paul McCarthy, Mona Hatoum, Rene Magritte, Ernesto Neto, Matthew Barney, Hans Bellmer, Pablo Picasso and Kiki Smith, among others.

“From Death to Death and Other Small Tales”at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, is an opportunity to admire different kinds of artworks that aren’t usually shown to the public.

Source: Press release