Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality

15 June – 3 Sept 2023

The Courtauld Gallery, Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries – Gallery 1

A black and white image showing 20 ceramic tiles with details
Phoebe Collings-James, Live and Active Gut Cultures or Subaltern Spirit Guides or the Detritus of Devotional Memorabilia, 2019. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Phoebe Collings-James. Image courtesy of the artist and Arcadia Missa, London

Curated by The Courtauld’s MA Curating the Art Museum students, this exhibition explores complex relationships between land, its materiality and memory in modern and contemporary artistic practice.

The display presents eleven works from The Courtauld’s post-1945 collection and the recent acquisitions of the Arts Council Collection. This is the first time many of these artworks have been exhibited and the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs.

Displayed in dialogue with The Courtauld’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist landscapes, the artists in this exhibition present new ways of making art about land which reflects our ever-changing relationship with the earth.

Unearthing: Memory, Land, Materiality is an opportunity to see exceptional but usually unseen works from The Courtauld’s collection displayed alongside artworks by some of the most innovative contemporary practitioners in the UK, including Prunella Clough, Phoebe Collings-James, Katie Cuddon, Jasleen Kaur, Richard Long, Liv Preston, Abigail Reynolds, Richard Serra, Libita Sibungu, and Theo Simpson.