Winckelmann – The Divine Sex

Runtime: 16 June 2017 – 09 October 2018
Curator: Dr. Wolfgang Cortjaens
Vernissage: 15 June 2017, 7 pm
Press Tour: 15 June 2017, 11 am

The exhibition in the Gay Museum* carries the intentionally ambiguous title Winckelmann – The Divine Sex. The focus is on the antiquity reception of the scholar. Using over 100 sculptures and plaster casts, paintings, drawings, engravings and prints from the 18th and 19th centuries, Winckelmann’s discourse on the ‘Canon of the Beautiful’ is to be reconstructed in the Gay Museum*. At the same time, occupying ourselves with and speaking about art always seems to be a possibility, if not an essential element of the sublimation of erotic desire. The final point of the exhibition is around 1850, when Winckelmann’s era entered into a universal historical interpretation of style sequences an art history finally established itself as an academic discipline.

A secondary aspect of the exhibition highlights Cultural History: 18th century Italy is looked at as a long desired destination for homosexual travelers and art collectors. The historical conditions and boundaries of living that differed from the social norms around 1800 are discussed, as well as the influence of Winckelmann’s aesthetic concept on the training of artists and academics.

Press Photos

The press photos can be used exclusively to report on the exhibition “Winckelmann – The Divine Sex”, credits included.