Karen Knorr. Contemporary Artist Explores New Perspectives on Old Masters. The Wallace Collection is hosting its first ever contemporary exhibition this summer with a display of photographic works by Karen Knorr, currently visiting tutor at Goldsmith's College and the Surrey Institute of Art. This exhibition comprises her current project entitled Sanctuary, the latest in her Academies series.
Karen Knorr
Contemporary Artist Explores New Perspectives on Old Masters
The Wallace Collection is hosting its first ever contemporary exhibition this
summer with a display of photographic works by Karen Knorr, currently visiting tutor
at Goldsmith's College and the Surrey Institute of Art. This exhibition comprises her
current project entitled Sanctuary, the latest in her Academies series.
In these works, some produced especially for this exhibition, the artist 'explores the ideas that underpin heritage and
patrimony and the role of art in the construction of national identity'. The magical
large scale photographs feature paintings and interiors of the Wallace Collection in
an unsettling and bewitching narration involving wolves, apes and exotic birds. 'These works both allude to the allegorical
traditions that can be found in 18th and 19th-century paintings, and interrogate the boundaries between the human and
non-human'.
Karen Knorr, an American born in Germany, spent her childhood in
Puerto Rico and completed her education in Europe. Since the late
1970s her photographic work has developed through six major series.
This development continues with the series Academies, which she
began in 1994. More recently her work uses video and installations to
examine the ideological value of fine-art culture in Europe and the
distinctions it proposes. Karen Knorr's work has been extensively
collected both publicly and privately in Great Britain and abroad.
Karen Knorr's previous series are: Belgravia, 1979-1980, Gentlemen,
1981-1983, Country Life, 1983-1985, Connoisseurs, 1986-1989,
Capital, 1990-1993, and The Virtues and the Delights, 1993-1994.
She was recently awarded a Hassleblad Research Award and was commissioned by the Foundation of Contemporary Art in
France to photograph the 19th-century sculpture collection in the
Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
The Wallace Collection and Karen Knorr are grateful to the Arts Council for their kind support of this exhibition.
From 5th July, on this site, follow the exhibition in Karen's own words
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The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London
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