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Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Jan Steen, The Interior of an Inn (‘The Broken Eggs’), About 1665-70, Bequeathed by Sir Otto Beit, 1941, © National Gallery, London.

Pieter de Hooch, A Musical Party in a Courtyard, 1677, © National Gallery, London.

The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
44-020 7747 2885
London
Kienholz: The Hoerengracht
November 18, 2009-
February 21, 2010

The Hoerengracht (1983-8), by American artists Ed Kienholz (1927-1994) and Nancy Reddin Kienholz (born 1943), transforms the National Gallery’s Sunley Room into a walk-through evocation of Amsterdam's Red Light District.

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.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, L.A. Louver, Venice.

Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, The Hoerengracht (detail), 1983-8 © Kienholz Estate, L.A. Louver.

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), Saint Serapion, 1628, © Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund (1951.40).

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés, 1635, © Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), The Immaculate Conception, 1618-9, © The National Gallery, London. Bought with the aid of The Art Fund, 1974.

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), The Venerable Mother Jerónima de la Fuente, 1620, © Private collection. Photo 2009 Gonzalo de la Serna.

Alonso Cano (1601-1667), Saint John of God, about 1655, © Photo Imagen M.A.S. Courtesy of Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada.

Francisco Antonio Ruiz Gijón (1653-about 1721), Saint John of the Cross, 1675, Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Patrons’ Permanent Fund (2003.124.1).

The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
44-020 7747 2885
London
Sainsbury Wing
The Sacred Made Real:
Spanish Painting and Sculpture
1600-1700
October 21, 2009-January 24, 2010
Room 1
The Making
of a Spanish
Polychrome Sculpture
October 21, 2009-January 24, 2010

Created to shock the senses and stir the soul …The Sacred Made Real presents a landmark reappraisal of religious art from the Spanish Golden Age. Paintings including masterpieces by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán are displayed for the very first time alongside Spain’s remarkable polychrome (painted) sculptures.

An accompanying Room 1 exhibition explores the technical aspects of making a polychrome sculpture, from its intricate carving, through the gessoing process to the final touches of paint which render the sculpture ‘real’. For further information, a separate press release is available.

While the religious paintings of Velázquez and Zurbarán are relatively well known, the polychrome sculptures which also emerged from 17th-century Spain have never been the subjects of a major exhibition. Still passionately venerated in monasteries, churches and processions across the Iberian Peninsula, very few of these sculptures have ever been exhibited overseas.

During the Spanish Counter-Reformation, religious patrons, particularly the Dominican, Carthusian and Franciscan orders, challenged painters and sculptors to bring the sacred to life, to inspire both Christian devotion and the emulation of the saints. The exhibition brings together some of the finest depictions of key Christian themes including the Passion of Christ, the Immaculate Conception and the portrayal of saints, notably Pedro de Mena’s austere rendition of Saint Francis Standing in Meditation, 1663, which has never before left the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral.

By installing 16 polychrome sculptures and 16 paintings side-by-side, the exhibition aims to show that the ‘hyperrealistic’ approach of painters such as Velázquez and Zurbarán was clearly informed by their familiarity — and in some cases direct involvement — with sculpture.

Last seen in Europe over 50 years ago and a crucial loan to the exhibition, Zurbarán’s masterpiece, The Crucifixion, 1627 (Art Institute of Chicago) achieves an astonishing sculptural illusion on canvas. When seen in close proximity with Juan Martínez Montañés’ polychrome sculpture of 1617 (Church of the Convent of Santo Ángel, Seville), these two art forms begin an intense natural dialogue.

In Seville, Francisco Pacheco taught Velázquez, later his son-in-law, and a generation of artists the skill of painting sculpture as an integral element of their training. Pacheco himself painted the flesh tones and drapery of exquisite wooden sculptures carved by fellow Andalucian, Montañés, known by his contemporaries as ‘the god of wood’. Among the most important examples is their life-size Saint Francis Borgia Meditating on a Skull, 1624 (Church of the Anunciación, Seville University) commissioned by the Jesuits to celebrate his beatification that year. Another highlight of the exhibition is the fascinating juxtaposition of Velázquez’s The Immaculate Conception, 1618-19 (National Gallery, London) with Montañés’s exquisite polychrome sculpture of the same subject, about 1620 (Seville University).

To obtain even greater realism, some sculptors such as Pedro de Mena and Gregorio Fernández introduced glass eyes and tears as well as ivory teeth into their sculptures. Fernández’s astonishingly realistic Dead Christ, 1625-30 (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; on long term loan to the Museo Nacional Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid) incorporates the bark of a cork tree to simulate the effect of coagulated blood, and bull’s horn for Christ’s fingernails. It was fully intended that believers should feel truly in the presence of the dead Christ.

During Semana Santa (Holy Week), some 17th-century polychrome sculptures are still carried through the streets by religious confraternities, particularly in Seville, Granada and Valladolid, the most important centres of this art. During the evening of Palm Sunday, Seville’s Archicofradía del Cristo del Amor (Confraternity of the Christ of Love) process a life-size sculpture of the Crucifixion by Juan de Mesa. The exhibition features a smaller version of this work, about 1621, which although non-processional, plays a vital role in the pastoral life of the confraternity.

While sometimes deeply unsettling, depictions of Christ’s suffering or indeed Juan de Mesa’s Decapitated Head of Saint John the Baptist, about 1620 (Seville Cathedral) are also exquisitely finished. When depicting the saints, sculptors and polychromers combined their skills to achieve maximum facial expressiveness. Alonso Cano’s life-size head of Saint John of God, 1655 (Museo de Bellas Artes, Granada), which has never left Spain before, depicts with astonishing sensitivity the compassionate expression of Granada’s patron saint.

Zurbarán’s heightened illusionism, in particular his handling of fabric, shows an acute understanding and appreciation of sculpture. Once in British collections and now returning to the UK for the first time in over 50 years, Saint Serapion, 1628 (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT), is among the artist’s greatest achievements. The saint’s voluminous white habit cascades with astonishingly rendered crevasses of deep shadow. Here, Zurbarán demonstrates that painting can indeed achieve the same disconcerting realism as sculpture.

The religious art of 17th-century Spain pursued a quest for realism with uncompromising zeal and genius. Far from being separate, this exhibition proposes that the arts of painting and sculpture were intricately linked and interdependent.

•The Sacred Made Real is organised by the National Gallery, London and is curated by Xavier Bray, Assistant Curator of 17th- and 18th-century Paintings at the National Gallery, London.

The Sacred Made Real (ISBN: 978 1 85709 422 0). The exhibition is accompanied by a landmark catalogue examining the creative relationship of sculptor and painter, the religious role of polychrome sculpture and the technical challenges involved in its creation. Featuring approximately 180 colour illustrations including paintings by Pacheco, Ribera, Velázquez and Zurbarán alongside unique photography of polychrome sculpture by Gregorio Fernández, Juan de Mesa, Juan Martínez Montañés, Alonso Cano and Pedro de Mena.

Catalogue by Xavier Bray, Assistant Curator of 17th- and 18th-Century Paintings at the National Gallery, London; Alfonso Rodriguez G. de Ceballos, formerly Professor at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid; Daphne Barbour and Judy Ozone, both Senior Object Conservators at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

With contributions from: Eleonora Luciano, Associate Curator of Sculpture, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Marjorie Trusted, Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Maria Fernanda Morón de Castro, Curator of Collections, University of Seville; Maria del Valme Muñoz Rubio, Chief Curator and Rocio Izquierdo Moreno and Ignacio Hermoso Romero, curators at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville.

Published by the National Gallery Company, London. Distributed by Yale University Press. £19.99 paperback, £35 hardback.

Gregorio Fernández (about 1576-1636), Ecce Homo, 1617, Museo Diocesano y Catedralicio, Valladolid, © Fototeca de Obras Restauradas. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España / Ministerio de Cultura.

Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), Mary Magdalen Meditating on the Crucifixion, 1664, © Photo Imagen M.A.S. Courtesy of Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. On long loan to the Museo Nacional Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid.

Juan Martinez Montañes (1568-1649), Saint Bruno, 1634, © Photo Imagen M.A.S. Courtesy of Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville.

Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), Christ as the Man of Sorrows, 1673, Convento de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid, © 2009 Photo Gonzalo de la Serna. Courtesy of Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid.

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), The Crucifixion, 1627, © The Art Institute of Chicago. Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund (1954.15).