Providing a unique experience, sculpture and painting will be displayed side-by-side. This will be the first major exhibition to explore this relationship.

Most Spanish sculptures from this time were dedicated to key Christian themes. ‘The Sacred Made Real’ will explore how painters and sculptors combined their skills to create arrestingly real depictions of the saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Passion of Christ.

Sculptures from this era were painstakingly carved from wood, gessoed and intricately polychromed (painted in many colours). Many of the sculptures were polychromed by Francisco Pacheco, who taught a generation of painters, including Velázquez and Cano.

In addition to important canvases by Velázquez, Cano and Zurbarán, ‘The Sacred Made Real’ will feature sculptures carved by Gregorio Fernández, Juan Martínez Montañés and Pedro de Mena, and polychromed by Francisco Pacheco and Alonso Cano.

Standard Tickets: Timed-ticket entry

Full price    £8
Senior/concession    £7
Senior/concession Tuesday
afternoon offer    £4
Art Fund members    £4
Students/Job seekers/12-18s    £4
Under 12s    FREE

 

Family tickets
Two adults and up to four children aged 12-18
Family ticket    £16
 

Season tickets
Unlimited entry to this exhibition at any date and time
Full price    £20
Senior/concessions    £18
Art Fund members    £10
Students/Job seekers/12-18s    £10
 

 

 

 

It will be the first time an installation of this kind has been exhibited at the National Gallery. The Hoerengracht is one of the most significant pieces of installation art made by the Kienholzes before Ed’s death in the mid-1990s. Intense and often shocking, the ground-breaking installations – developed by Ed in the 1960s and continued in collaboration with his wife Nancy from 1972 – connect both to the art of the past and to more contemporary developments. Artists such as Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Mike Nelson, the Chapman brothers, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst have all produced work that is in a direct line of descent from Kienholz.

Made in the Kienholzes’ Berlin studio, 'The Hoerengracht' (‘Whore’s Canal’), a classic example of assemblage art, breaks down the barrier between art gallery space and the real world by using objects from everyday life to address the theme of prostitution in a direct and unadulterated way.

The highly polemical street scene explores the idea of ‘love for sale’ – a theme that has been interpreted by artists over many centuries. Near to the evocative installation, a selection of 17th-century Dutch paintings from the National Gallery’s own collection will be displayed to create a historic perspective. These will include Jan Steen’s 'Interior of an Inn', Godfried Schalcken’s 'A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl' and Pieter de Hooch’s 'A Musical Party in a Courtyard'.

Nancy Reddin Kienholz said, ‘The Hoerengracht is fashioned after the Red Light District area, the Herengracht (“Gentlemen’s Canal”). It is a piece for voyeurs. As the viewer walks the streets of our red light district, he or she discovers girls in windows and doorways who are offering their bodies for sale. There is music to be heard, and corners to traverse where more whores are offered.’

She continued, ‘Prostitution is the oldest profession and no laws can overcome this fact. I would only hope that 'The Hoerengracht' is a kind portrait of the profession.’

The work was a return to a theme first tackled by Ed Kienholz in his earliest environmental sculpture – the now legendary 'Roxy’s' (1961) – named after a real brothel in Nevada. 'The Hoerengracht' addresses issues of sordid sex, social crime and human folly. It revisits a theme ubiquitous in art of the past held in the National Gallery’s own collection but here the setting has changed to a sleazy mid-1980s European street scene.

Recreating the glowing windows and mysterious doorways of Amsterdam's claustrophobic streets, The Hoerengracht’s half-dressed, garishly lit mannequins enact a theatre of grim sociology, giving the viewer a peek into the seedy underbelly of the Red Light District. 'The Hoerengracht' functions as a composite street of the whole neighbourhood, creating a walk-through environment that places particular emphasis on external objects like a client’s bike, dustbins and street signs.

The installation manipulates the viewer’s emotions: he or she does not gain entrance into the girls’ rooms but is forced to walk down the street like a typical client. One whore stands in the hallway whilst another sprawls herself across a stairway, presumably on the way up to a second-floor room. The remainder lounge in their windows or spaces, inviting men to come inside.

The texture of the assemblage is unpleasant and the dungeon-like window façades of 'The Hoerengracht' frame the faces of the girls, whose mannequin heads are in turn surrounded by tin cases. Their breasts are framed in perspex boxes, further emphasizing the fragmentation of the female body by consumer culture. At the same time, however, their hardened stance within dark doorways implies that they are aware of – and in control of – their condition.
 

Admission free

18 November 2009 – 21 February 2010
 
Daily 10am–6pm, Friday until 9pm
Last admission 5.15pm (8.15pm Friday) 

 

 

Catalogue

'The Hoerengracht: Kienholz at the National Gallery'
By Colin Wiggins and Annemarie De Wildt

This catalogue explains how 'The Hoerengracht' resonates powerfully with paintings by Dutch masters of the 17th century, widely represented in the National Gallery Collection. Readers are also introduced to the Kienholzes, an innovative and controversial artistic partnership who have influenced contemporary artists. The authors also consider The Hoerengracht ‘s memorable place in Amsterdam’s colourful history.
 
Published by the National Gallery Company in October 2009. Distributed by Yale University Press.

Such was Delaroche’s success that it often exceeded that of his contemporaries, Ingres and Delacroix. His paintings combine Ingres’s highly finished style with Delacroix’s historical themes to great effect, resembling stage productions where dramatic scenes are being acted.

About the painting

The monumental Execution of Lady Jane Grey, Delaroche’s most famous painting, is arguably the best example of this new genre. Depicting the moment before the execution of the young queen in 1554, after a reign of just nine days, it is poignant in subject matter and uncanny in its intense realism.

Through preparatory drawings and sketches, this exhibition traces the slow and careful gestation of the painting. It also places it in the wider context of history painting of the time. Important precedents are displayed alongside the major works which established Delaroche’s reputation in the 1820s and 30s.

'Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey' examines Delaroche’s predilection for emotionally-affecting English themes and his involvement with the theatre, both essential components of his art. The exhibition aims to return critical attention to a major painter who fell from favour soon after his death, but to whom the public now respond with wide admiration.

 

Sainsbury Wing Exhibition
Admission charge