Keeping It Real

Keeping It Real: An Exhibition in Four Acts
Act 1: The Corporeal
The D. Daskalopoulos Collection
10 June – 5 September 2010

77 – 82 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX

www.whitechapelgallery.org

Marcel Duchamp’s iconic Fountain (1917/64), a common urinal displayed on a plinth, is the starting point for tracing the different ways in which artists have used materials to examine the relationship between art and reality.

This first in a series of four displays at the Whitechapel Gallery drawn from the D. Daskalopoulos Collection, Greece brings together works by both well-known and rarely seen artists who address questions of identity, desire and human vulnerability. Louise Bourgeois’ hanging sculpture La Fillette (Sweet Version) (1968–99), Sherrie Levine’s bronze reworking of Duchamp’s ready-made and Robert Gober’s double-sexed Untitled (Torso) (1991) share a sense of the surreal. The artist is immediately present in the body prints of David Hammons, Jim Hodge’s transfer prints made with his own saliva and Despina Isaia’s delicate weave of her hair. Other artists on show include Marina Abramovic, John Bock, Sarah Lucas and Sue Williams.

Keeping It Real is part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s ongoing programme of opening up important public and private art collections to wider audiences.