The Exibition

‘Riotous Baroque’ confronts pictures from the seventeenth century with art of the present day. The exhibition focuses on the ‘riotous’ aspect and the proximity to life that is a recurring theme in the literature on the Baroque. It sets out to extricate the concept of the Baroque from its conventional context within the history of style and to distance itself from formal clichés. ‘Riotous Baroque’ is not about pomp, ornament and gold, but rather ‘manifestations of precarious vitality’ – a vitality that is lived, rediscovered or lost, projected and threatened by death. The intention is not to proclaim a neo-Baroque stylistic tendency in contemporary art. In an age of stylistic scepticism, art today is seeking to gain traction with reality and touch upon existential issues.

Artists

Curated by Bice Curiger.

With loans from leading museums including the Prado, the Bavarian State Picture Collections in Munich and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Art Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main and the National Gallery in London, as well as from many private collectors.