With an area of around two square metres, the skin is the largest organ of the human body. It covers and envelops the body, delimits and protects it, and enables us to feel. Experiences and sensations are inscribed on its surface. The skin shapes our identity and at the same time serves as a projection surface for those we encounter.
About the Exhibition
Based on selected works from the Collection of Prints and Drawings, the exhibition presents more than sixty works from different media and periods, including drawings, paintings and sculptures, from the Old Masters to Contemporary Art. A multi-layered panorama thus unfolds, highlighting the reproduction of skin as one of the fundamental tasks of artistic practice. The skin appears as a mirror of beauty and vulnerability, of youth and age, and as a site of emotion, touch and desire.
On view are both lesser-known artists and works by renowned artists such as Hans Baldung Grien, Raphael, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Auguste Rodin and Robert Mapplethorpe. The juxtaposition of these works reveals the similarities and differences in their depictions of skin, highlighting the diversity of creative approaches. The variety of materials and techniques employed—from brush and paint to metalpoint, chalk and charcoal, as well as three-dimensional objects—enables a sensual experience of the surface of the human body. Depictions of touch intensify this sensual effect and connect seeing, feeling and understanding. Thus, art proves to be an inspiring “archive” of how we perceive and experience skin.
Curator
Dr Astrid Reuter (Head of Prints and Drawings before 1800, Städel Museum)
Hans Multscher
Holy Trinity, 1450
Tizian
Portrait of a Young Man, ca. 1510
François Gérard
Orpheus tries to hold on to Eurydice, ca. 1791
Sponsors
Sponsored by
Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V.
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