Head to head: Portrait Sculpture Ancient to Modern

Beautiful exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery looking at sculpted heads and figures from ancient times to now.

I say beautiful because of the lay out. It was displayed in a dark rather contained space with the pieces shown at different heights and viewable from all sides. It mixed genres and materials so that you looked at each object as an individual item not as part of a group. There was even one figure handing from the ceiling and a few interesting twists and turns which meant objects were revealed as you walked round. There was also a clever use of reflections off the darkened windows. A stunning display!

There is of course a however, it was a bit over themed. There were four portrait?, material, the function and breaking out. This did give some narrative to the work but it was sometimes a bit confusing as to which category you were looking at but frankly on the whole it didn’t matter. I know I like a narrative to take me round a show but in this case, with one type of object and a small space they items could have just spoken for themselves.

Stand out pieces included the Epstein statue of the Living Christ modelled on one of his friends which greeted you at the entrance, the set of casts of real heads made for the Edinburgh Phrenology Society and a stunning head of Canova made by his studio.
 
Closes 10 January 2016.

 

 

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