Exhibition Info
IN DREAMS AWAKE
Between 1480 and 1505 the Flemish artist Hieronymus Bosch created one of the masterpieces of European art history. Entitled The Garden of Earthly Delights, this imaginative tour de force portrays Bosch’s vision of the Garden of Eden, the earthly realm and the afterlife. The actual meaning of Bosch’s painting ahs confounded viewers and art historians throughout the ages with art historians and critics generally interpreting the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of life’s temptations. The intricacy of its symbolism, however, has led to a wide range of scholarly interpretations over the centuries. In recent decades scholars have come to believe reflects the orthodox religious belief systems of Bosch’s age and was meant to teach specific moral and spiritual truths in the manner of other Northern Renaissance artists.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) Travelling Exhibition In Dreams Awake is inspired by this treasure of the early Renaissance. Referencing themes and elements discerned in The Garden of Earthly Delights, the artworks in the exhibition, like Bosch’s painting, explore life – both the natural world and the human relationships and interactions – in all its complexity.
Subjects such as fruit, water, fish and plant life and themes of religion, desire, simple pleasures and ‘horror’ are expressed in Bosch’s master work and artworks from the AFA’s collection which echo these concerns were chosen for this exhibition. While Bosch’s painting is the muse for this exhibition, however, each work in the exhibition is its own entity and in reality is unrelated to the other works featured. Like the fragmented images seen in dreams the exhibition In Dreams Awake unites these works to provide visions, similar to the disjointed and bizarre scenes in Bosch’s triptych, of life in the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition In Dreams Awake thus becomes, in essence, a modern recitation of Bosch’s narrative.
The exhibition In Dreams Awake, featuring artworks drawn form the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, is inspired by the triptych the Garden of Earthly Delights created by the early Renaissance artist Hieronymus Bosch. Exploring elements, themes, and artistic styles which are expressed within or can be linked to this gem of Madrid’s Prado Museum, this eclectic exhibition examines the ‘earthly garden’ as investigated by Alberta’s artists and explores the influence of the past on contemporary artistic expression.
In Dreams Awake was curated by Shane Golby, Manager/Curator, Art Gallery of Alberta, Region 2 of the AFA Travelling Exhibition program (TREX).
