The Classical Now (Modern Classicisms)
- Submitting institution
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King's College London
- Unit of assessment
- 29 - Classics
- Output identifier
- 139963413
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- King's College London
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- March
- Year of first exhibition
- 2018
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘The Classical Now’ exhibition was mounted by King’s Classics, the King’s Cultural Institute and Musée d’Art Classique, Mougins in spring 2018 (exhibition guide submitted; also USB with select photographs of the exhibition). It was among the first public shows to explore the dialogue between Graeco-Roman and modern and contemporary art, forming part of a larger research project on ‘Modern Classicisms’ which had launched with an international workshop in November 2017.
Cahill’s research for ‘Modern Classicisms’ was primarily oral. After preparatory research into their output and attitudes, he recorded live interviews with over 30 prominent artists whose works demonstrate sustained engagement with classical antiquity. In the workshop, these discussions were expanded into public conversations with 35 artists, curators and academics, which were published as videos on the project’s website (submitted as USB: Cahill’s live inputs are ‘II: The Classical Lens’, ‘Intervention 3: Mary and Patrick Reid Kelly’, and ‘V: Dressing up Antiquity’). The conversations investigate and document why classical antiquity remains a live concern of contemporary art, and the diversity of classical ‘influence’.
Cahill’s interviews shaped the themes of ‘The Classical Now’ - ‘Overture’, ‘Pose’, ‘Myth’ and ‘Place’ - which included work by 58 modern and contemporary artists. Cahill’s research enabled the exhibition to deploy these themes as modalities for theorizing contemporary art’s relationships with classical antiquity. Cahill drew upon his research to create wall texts and content for the accompanying cultural programme, including his sole-curated cabinets on Ian Hamilton Finlay archives and tableaux vivants. For the book which was another product of the exhibition (hard copy submitted), he and his co-editors conducted further interviews with artists and commissioned additional chapters. In its anthological format, interdisciplinarity and breadth, the book marks a novel approach to research into ancient and modern art.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
