Viewed from the back, the kneeling male figure looks awfully cute. His hair is neatly combed, his jacket is carefully pressed, and he's steeped in silent contemplation. As you tiptoe up to him in the chapel-like space, you expect to discover an adorable young boy made of wax. Then ...... BAM!!!!!!! It's Adolf Hitler.
"Him" must be the best thing Maurizio Cattelan ever did - and it's a highlight of the Hayward Gallery's powerful new show, "The Human Factor." The exhibition shows how the sculpted figure is both heading in eerie new directions and harking back to the great masters of the past. There are lots of hair-raising displays; there are also lots of art-historical flashbacks, where you find yourself mentally box-ticking Degas (even before you read the labels).
Sculpture has sure come a long way from the days of chaste Madonnas and men on horseback. The naked actress in Paul McCarthy's That Girl (T.G. Awake, 2012-2013), sculpted in triplicate, leaves nothing to the imagination. Her three flesh-colored effigies are parked on what look like operating tables; her legs are half-open, revealing even more than Courbet's L'Origine du monde. The effect is so uncomfortable, you have to look away.
In his naked, unflattering self-portrait with his then wife (Monika and Pawel, 2002), Pawel Althamer wears large, lop-sided eyeglasses and a video camera around his neck. Their two bodies are crafted out of straw, thread and animal guts. The work looks highly biodegradable; you wonder how it'll hold up over time.
Not everything in the show is a standout. John Miller's mannequins look like, well, mannequins, and if one of them wasn't on the terrace with his toes in a wading pool, he'd look pretty ordinary. Still, a good 80 percent of the art deserves to be there - a high ratio for a contemporary show. Ralph Rugoff (the Hayward's director) must be one of the few qualified practicioners of the endangered art of curating. At a time when so many art-market go-betweens are refashioning themselves as "curators," it's refreshing to come across a guy with an eye, and actual knowledge.
"The Human Factor" is, for my money, one of the two best art exhibitions in London right now (along with Matisse Cut-Outs at Tate Modern). Go see it - just don't take your kids, or your squeamish sister-in-law.
"Him" must be the best thing Maurizio Cattelan ever did - and it's a highlight of the Hayward Gallery's powerful new show, "The Human Factor." The exhibition shows how the sculpted figure is both heading in eerie new directions and harking back to the great masters of the past. There are lots of hair-raising displays; there are also lots of art-historical flashbacks, where you find yourself mentally box-ticking Degas (even before you read the labels).
Sculpture has sure come a long way from the days of chaste Madonnas and men on horseback. The naked actress in Paul McCarthy's That Girl (T.G. Awake, 2012-2013), sculpted in triplicate, leaves nothing to the imagination. Her three flesh-colored effigies are parked on what look like operating tables; her legs are half-open, revealing even more than Courbet's L'Origine du monde. The effect is so uncomfortable, you have to look away.
In his naked, unflattering self-portrait with his then wife (Monika and Pawel, 2002), Pawel Althamer wears large, lop-sided eyeglasses and a video camera around his neck. Their two bodies are crafted out of straw, thread and animal guts. The work looks highly biodegradable; you wonder how it'll hold up over time.
Not everything in the show is a standout. John Miller's mannequins look like, well, mannequins, and if one of them wasn't on the terrace with his toes in a wading pool, he'd look pretty ordinary. Still, a good 80 percent of the art deserves to be there - a high ratio for a contemporary show. Ralph Rugoff (the Hayward's director) must be one of the few qualified practicioners of the endangered art of curating. At a time when so many art-market go-betweens are refashioning themselves as "curators," it's refreshing to come across a guy with an eye, and actual knowledge.
"The Human Factor" is, for my money, one of the two best art exhibitions in London right now (along with Matisse Cut-Outs at Tate Modern). Go see it - just don't take your kids, or your squeamish sister-in-law.
