Dyvik Kahlen Architects Barbican Art Gallery exhibition installation

The exhibition underway at the Barbican Art Gallery in London offers an unusual viewpoint on world-renowned artists Arman, Peter Blake, Hanne Darboven, Edmund de Waal, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Dr Lakra, Sol LeWitt, Martin Parr, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol, Pae White and Martin Wong/Danh Vo.
Curator Lydia Yee decided to represent the 14 artists through their own private collections, ranging from memorabilia and popular collectibles to rare artefacts and specimens, seen in relation to at least one of their important works to provide insight into their inspirations and influences.

The exhibition installation was designed by Dyvik Kahlen Architects, who faced a number of major difficulties: the number of objects to be exhibited, for each collection includes from 20 to 3000 items, and the heterogeneous shapes and sizes of the objects: from Andy Warhol’s biscuit tins to Arman’s African art and samurai armour, from Sol LeWitt’s Japanese prints to Peter Blake’s objects of vernacular British culture, etc.

The architects therefore designed different spaces for each artist in the gallery to reflect each artist’s aesthetic style. Each collection is set up in a different way, recreating the artist’s living and working space to offer visitors a taste of the emotions and personal interests that tied each artist to the collectibles on display.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Title: Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector
curator Lydia Yee
Dates: February 12 – May 25 2015
Location: Barbican Art Gallery, London - UK

Images courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery, ® Peter MacDiarmid, Getty Images

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery

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