WHERE: J. Paul Getty Museum.
WHEN: Through October 14, 2012.
TITLE: Messerschmidt and Modernity
BRIEF ABOUT: On view is the modern series of so-called Character Heads created by the German Baroque artist Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783). The exhibition shows how Messerschmidt’s heads are linked to the 18th and 19th centuries’ fascination with expression and the “passions,” as well as with the pseudosciences of physiognomy and pathognomy. It also traces how this series influenced the work of artists in fin-de-siècle Vienna and contemporary artists in Austria, Great Britain, and the United States.
MORE DETAILS: www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/messerschmidt/character.html.
IMAGE: Foreground: Mental Landscape, 2007, Tony Cragg. Collection of Tony Cragg. Artwork © Tony Cragg. On gallery wall left: Self-Portrait after Messerschmidt, 2009, Tony Bevan. Courtesy L.A. Louver, Venice, CA and Ben Brown Fine Arts, London. Artwork © Tony Bevan.