Collector Richard Harris announced today that he is interested in putting his nearly 1500 piece “Morbid Curiosity” collection in galleries and museums around the world. Morbid Curiosity showcases Richard Harris’s wild and wonderfully eclectic compilation 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. Some of the artists included are Rembrandt, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Bellmar, James Ensor, Jasper Johns, Robert Mapplethorpe, Odilon Redon, Pavel Tchelitchew and Adriaen van Utrecht. Interested parties should contact lys@sphinxgroup.com. This assortment of rare works are currently on display at the Chicago Cultural Center until July 8th 2012. You can see many of the works online athttp://www.richardharrisartcollection.com/
“This icongraphy transcends all boundaries and is timely now as it was when it was first created,” explained Mr. Harris. “It has been great fun to walk the floor at the Chicago Cultural Center and meet people face to face and see their reactions. Young and old, rich and poor, and people of all colors as well as the art connoisseur and the art curious beginner from all over the world have been enchanted by it. They make you think about your own mortality and address the topic out in the open that is often hidden in the shadows; what happens when you die?
The exhibition falls into two categories, the invidiviual Death and the mass Death of War. The first category explores death in all aspects from the spiritual to the scientific with a vast assortment of artistic styles and genres including the Dance of Death, a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death and Vanitas, a type of art that employs symbolic elements, such as hourglasses, rotting fruit and skulls, to signify the brevity of life. The second category showcases Harris’s rare collection of five great war series, arguably the most remarkable interpretations of war in art, evoking the ongoing cycle of human cruelty and destruction over centuries ranging from the 17th to the 21st.
For more information visit http://www.richardharrisartcollection.com/
Keep up to date with Richard at http://richardharrisartcollection.blogspot.com/
About Richard Harris: New York native Richard Harris has been collecting for more than 40 years. Previous shows that have exhibited his works are The Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, Pa., Strictly Death (Jan. 23 –Mar. 13, 2010); The Figge Art Museum Davenport, Iowa, Dancing Towards Death (Sept, 18, 2010–Jan. 9, 2011); and Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA), Chicago, The Richard Harris Collection: Balint Zsako Collages(Feb. 3 –May 1, 2011).