2011 Archive: Falling up: The Gravity of Art

23 June – 4 September 2011

FALLING UP: The Gravity of Art explores the theme of gravity in art through a selection of historical and contemporary works from The Courtauld Gallery and The Arts Council Collection. Through a series of striking juxtapositions, the exhibition will reveal artists’ ongoing fascination with notions of gravity, from the 16th to the 21st century.

Cornelia Parker Neither From Nor Towards, 1993, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © The Artist

Gravity acts as a compelling and ineluctable force which affects all objects and beings. Yet art both past and present abounds in attempts to defy its pull. Presenting paintings, sculpture, photographs and engravings by Peter Paul Rubens, Auguste Rodin, Cornelia Parker and Wolfgang Tillmans, amongst others, the exhibition investigates the delicate relationship between weight and weightlessness, flying and falling, earth and sky.