June 23 - September 19,
2010
Ben Uri, 108a Boundary Road, off Abbey
Road, St John's Wood, London NW8 ORH
 Ben Uri is the first UK
Museum and the first Jewish Museum internationally to trace the evolving
representation of the Crucifixion from strictly Christian and religious
iconography to a generic expression of anguish, designed specifically to elicit
shock and contemplation.
21 important international artists
are represented in the exhibition, each bringing a very individual narrative
drawn from a century of turbulent change. This exhibition dramatically
illustrates that when the modern is juxtaposed with the traditional within the
framework of such a sensitive subject, the result is both visually and
intellectually compelling.
Graham Sutherland, Stanley Spencer, Duncan Grant, Eric Gill,
Craigie Aitchison, Emmanuel Levy, Lee Miller, Tracey Emin, Francis Souza, Marc
Chagall, Norman Adams, Betty Swanwick, John Armstrong, Samuel Bak, Robert
Henderson Blyth, Gilbert Spencer, Michael Rothenstein, Sybil Andrews, Maggi
Hambling, Roy De Maistre and David Jones all illustrate, in very different ways,
the rapid evolution of the symbol of the Crucifixion from the sacred to the
secular.
Evocative
works by Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak, Emmanuel Levy, and the recently
discovered 'Apocalypse en Lilas' by Marc Chagall, raise a multitude of questions
including why Jewish artists only seem to have adopted Christ and the
Crucifixion as part of their artistic vocabulary from the last quarter of the
19th century.
The fully illustrated catalogue includes essays
by Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts at Kings College, London;
Jennifer Swan, psychologist and researcher in analytical theory and the arts;
Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Professor Emeritus in the department of Art History at the
Hebrew University Jerusalem, and curator / historian Monica Bohm-Duchen. Each
image is also individually addressed by independent commentators stimulating
debate and interaction between the works and the sensitivity of the subject.
Also addressed is why only in relatively recent years have artists of the Jewish
(and Muslim) faith engaged with the Crucifixion.
" This is a powerful collection of images ... from the point of
view of every variety of belief, doubt or unbelief: a deeply moving and
questioning exhibition" Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of
Canterbury.
" This is one of the most remarkable
exhibitions of paintings on a religious theme for many years and it deserves to
be widely recognised as such" Richard Harries, Lord Harries of
Pentregarth.
Curator: Nathaniel
Hepburn
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NOTES
FOR
EDITORS:
Images and further
information: Please contact Suzanne Lewis suzanne@benuri.org.uk
Press View: 22nd
June 12
onwards
Private View:
22nd June - Sir Norman Rosenthal will open the exhibition at
6.30pm
Exhibition dates: 23rd June - 19th September
2010
Opening hours:
Monday - Friday 10 - 5.30pm, Sunday 12 -
4pm
Admission: Adult
£5, Concession £4
Free for
children, BU Friends and Art Fund
Members
Location: Ben Uri
Gallery, 108a Boundary Road, Off Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London, NW8 0RH, On
street parking. Tel: 020 7604 3991 www.benuri.org.uk
Transport: Tube -
Jubilee Line;
Swiss Cottage / St
John's Wood (7 minute
walk)
Bus: 139/189 From Oxford
Street
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