Orangery

29 January to 25 May 2008

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt is considered one of the most remarkable artist personalities of the 18th century. His studies of human gestures, exemplified by the series of the Character Heads, a sculptural masterpiece, still strike us because of their modernity and expressive radicalism. Tony Cragg, born in Liverpool in 1949, numbers among the most interesting contemporary sculptors. His works fascinate us with their liveliness and versatility.

The Belvedere presents predominantly those works in which the artist starts out from humanoid forms and various silhouettes of faces in profile, which he defaces in order to make them unrecognisable.

By juxtaposing the sculptors Franz Xaver Messerschmidt and Tony Cragg at the Orangery, the works of both are to be explored from new perspectives, so that new issues of debate will be raised.