2011 Annual Report - Nasher Museum of Art - Duke University

Body of ChristJanuary 27 - August 21, 2011Body of Christ was an installation in the permanentcollection gallery featuring two works by contemporarySpanish artist Javier Pérez. The cruciform hanging ofPérez’s three drawings of a head and two hands alludedto the image of the Crucifixion, while his life-sizedbronze and parchment sculpture of a tree transforminginto a skeleton form could be seen to referenceChrist’s death on the cross. Nancy Hanks SeniorCurator Sarah Schroth placed Pérez’s works within thehistorical context of paintings and sculptures of theCrucifixion from the 12th through the 18th centuriesin the museum’s permanent collection. Works rangedfrom bloody depictions of the tortured body of Christ toCrucifixes showing Christ with his eyes open, a Christtriumphant over death. Body of Christ helped providean important context for a concurrent installation,David Wojnarowicz “A Fire in My Belly”: Versions,Debates, Implications, at the Ackland Art Museumat the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Theinstallation at the Nasher Museum was made possibleby Blake Byrne, T’57.RELATED PROGRAMSFirst Thursday gallery talk with Marianne Wardle, Ph.D, Andrew W. Mellon Coordinator of Academic Programs at theNasher Museum.TOP LEFT: The 16th-century Italian sculpture Crucified Christ is carved from alabaster. Photo by Dr. J Caldwell.TOP RIGHT: Gallery view of works by Javier Pérez, including the 2010 sculpture of bronze and parchment resin (foreground)Trans(formationes), and the 2010 work on paper, Mascara Mortuoria (Triptych). Both works were on loan from Blake Byrne, T’57.All photos by Dr. J Caldwell.BOTTOM: Jonathan Prinz and other visitors take in the details of The Harrowing of Hell, an early 17th-century oil painting fromGermany or The Netherlands.p. 24 Body of ChristBody of Christp. 25