Curiosity: Art and the Pleasure of Knowing

The Turner Contemporary, Margate UK presents its latest exhibition, Curiosity, on show from 23rd March until 15th September 2013. The artist and writer Brian Dillon guides audiences through the passions and obsessions of latter day naturalists, and in the process, reveals how these fascinating specimens have influenced the history of art. The exhibition is unique in its style, as its theme focuses on the 17th century ‘cabinets of curiosities’. These cabinets are collections of the weird and wonderful with objects collated by wealthy gentlemen from their travels taken from museums, galleries, and institutions across the nation. The exhibition is a mixture of history and art reflecting a period in time when science and art were inseparable. Each room focuses on the idea of curiosity itself with a number of illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci at its heart. The exhibition then becomes a journey of discovery focusing on the human compulsion for knowledge together with our more frivolous desire for things that are strange and new. Definitely an exhibition for the family!

List of Artist in the Exhibition:

Agency, Salvatore Arancio, Anna Atkins, Sir Joseph Banks, Leopold Blaschka and Rudolph Blaschka, Corinne May Botz, Pablo Bronsteinm, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Gerard Byrne, Nina Canell, The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Roger Caillois, Tacita Dean, John Dee, Albrecht Dürer, Jimmie Durham, Gunda Förster, Aurélien Froment, Galileo Galilei, Philip Henry Gosse, Laurent Grasso, Thomas Grünfeld, Susan Hiller, Robert Hooke, Ferrante Imperato, Toril Johannessen, Nina Katchadourian, Elad Lassry, Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaes Maes, Jeremy Millar, Matt Mullican, Jean Painlevé, Katie Paterson, b Picart after Charles Le Brun, Francis Place, Aura Satz, Miroslav Tichý, JMW Turner, Richard Wentworth.