This September 12th sees the launch of a new exhibition at IMMA entitled ‘What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now’.

What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now features modern and contemporary masterworks from the world’s leading collections by Abramovic, Brancusi, Dalí, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacommetti, Oppenheim, Picasso, Warhol, Yoko Ono and many more.

The exhibition explores how the notion of love has evolved within the 20th century and ask questions such as have the sociological changes concerning sexuality, marriage and intimacy, as well as developments in gender issues, affected the way that we understand love today.

While the exhibition does not set out to give the ultimate definition of ‘what is love’, it examines how artists have represented it and how visual art, from Surrealism to the present day, deals with love and what these artistic representations tell us about what love means in our contemporary culture.

Drawing on contemporary sociology, neuroscience and of course, art, What We Call Love sheds some light on these questions and is presented in three chapters. It focuses mainly on the now and presents a succinct collection of Surrealist works alongside key conceptual and contemporary pieces, integrating new commissions and other works in the forms of cinema and performance.

What We Call Love will run from 12th September 2015 until 7th February 2016 at IMMA. Admission is €8 full price, €5 concession and visitors in fulltime education and under 18s are free.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of screenings, talks, events and live happenings. Further information is available on the IMMA website.

CONTACT DETAILS
IMMA
Military Road
Royal Hospital 
Kilmainham
Dublin 8

All images courtesy IMMA

Lead image Annabel Daou
Adieu, you whom I love a thousand times, 2014
Ink on ¼ inch mending tape, sound
Approx. 22860 cm / 9000 in (10,000 words) 48:00 min
Courtesy the artist and GalerieTanja Wagner, Berlin

Ange Leccia
Volvo, arrangement, 1986
Installation view in Le Magasin, Grenoble, France
AlmineRech Gallery, Paris, Bruxelles
© Ange Leccia ADAGP

Christodoulos Panayiotou
Slow dance Marathon, 2005
Video (documentation of a performance)
4 minutes and 22 seconds
Courtesy the artist and Rodeo, Istanbul/London

Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
Relationship #22, “Tillamook Dairy Parade”, 2008-2013
C-print
19.05 x 25.4 cm / 7.5 x 10 in
Courtesy Luis De Jesus Los Angeles