A deadly obsession takes hold of the Chicago Cultural Center this winter when one of its largest exhibitions to date, Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection,opens Saturday, January 28, 2012. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, Morbid Curiosity showcases Richard Harris’s wild and wonderfully eclectic collection of nearly 1,000 works of fine art, artifacts, installations and decorative objects, including creations by many of the greatest artists of our time, which explore the iconography of death across a variety of artistic, cultural and spiritual practices from 2000 B.C.E. to the present day.
Richard Harris, a resident of Riverwoods, Ill. who has been an art collector for 40 years, has gathered his provocative collection from all corners of the world to share with Chicago. Morbid Curiosity fills two recently renovated exhibition spaces, the Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery, located on the 4th floor of the ChicagoCulturalCenter, 78 E. Washington St. The exhibit runs through Sunday, July 8, 2012.
The two major components of this exhibition are the “War Room,”highlighting the atrocities of war in notable works from the 17th century to present day in the 4th floor Exhibit Hall; and the “Kunstkammer of Death,” a modern-day “cabinet of curiosities” housed in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery, featuring a wide-ranging survey of mortality across cultures and spiritual traditions.
Note: This exhibition contains explicit imagery that may be disturbing to younger or sensitive viewers.
The exhibition is free. For more information, visit http://www.explorechicago.org/.