Grim reapings
A collector's "paean to death" displayed in "Morbid Curiosity"
By Sam Worley @samuel_worley![[Recommended]](/images/icons/features-icon_recommended.gif)
Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection"
Reception Fri 1/27, 5:30-7:30 PM. Through 7/8: Mon-Thu 10 AM-7 PM, Fri 8 AM-6 PM, Sat 9 AM-6 PM, Sun 10 AM-6 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 312-744-6630, chicagoculturalcenter.org, free.
In 2001, longtime antiques dealer Richard Harris ditched his stock and started over from scratch, saying, "I believe it is incumbent upon me to make my collection a paean to death in all its many visages." What he accumulated is on display in one of the Chicago Cultural Center's largest shows yet. "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection" comprises nearly 1,000 pieces, all on the subject of death—human death, specifically. Harris has said he doesn't truck with animals: "Human skulls and skeletons are the only thing I'm interested in."
There's more here than skulls and skeletons, though. Works by Rembrandt, Goya, and Jasper Johns, for instance. A centerpiece of "Morbid Curiosity" is the War Room, which features five series of prints about battle, starting as far back as Jacques Callot's 17th-century Miseries of War and running up to The Depravities of War, Sandow Birk's set of woodblock prints on Iraq. Another gallery, the Kunstkammer of Death, features ghastly curiosities ranging from Mexican Day of the Dead art to late-medieval European vanitas paintings—still-life visions of decay, aging, and rot. Oh, and by the way, there's also Jodie Carey's 13-foot-tall chandelier constructed of 3,000 plaster bones.
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Related Locations
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Chicago Cultural Center
- 78 E. Washington St., Chicago Loop IL 60602
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312-744-6630
- chicagoculturalcenter.org
- (based on 1 user review)
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