Ghosts. Visualizing the Supernatural

Artists

Heidi Bucher, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Nicole Eisenman, Rosemarie Trockel, Mike Kelley, Erwin Wurm, Sigmar Polke, Paul Klee, Edvard Munch, Leonora Carrington, Meret Oppenheim, William Blake, Thomas Demand, Charles Dickens, Paul Gauguin, Madge Gill, Georgiana Houghton, Glenn Ligon, Susan MacWilliam, Gabriel von Max, Tony Oursler, Cornelia Parker, Laure Pigeon, Odilon Redon, Thomas Schütte, Toyen, Remedios Varo, Rachel Whiteread, Gillian Wearing

Press release

Ghosts are everywhere: in fiction, popular culture, and historic scientific inquiry. Whether friendly or threatening, spooky or harmless, they are an expression of a society's desire to grapple with the unknown and the ungraspable. For the more than eighty artists from the 19th century to the present day featured in the exhibition, the desire to explore the supernatural and the longing to render these elusive entities visible has been a keen source of inspiration. Ghosts haunt all media: in classical painting or sculpture, in photography, or as specters within digital space. Artists have acted as mediums for spirits or, possessed by them, created works according to their instructions. Famous ghosts from literature have been given uncanny form and Surrealist visions have been made visible. This comprehensive exhibition mines both the history of art and the paranormal, creating an exploration of the poetic potential and disquieting power of ghostly apparitions.