Exquisite Corpse is a series of twenty etchings by the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman.
The title of this work, which is on display in Gallery 4: Human Presence at Aberdeen Art Gallery, refers to a collaborative game created by the Surrealists in 1925, a pictorial adaptation of the parlour game Consequences.
A group of artists would take it in turn to draw a section before concealing it by folding the paper and passing it on – their aim was to access the subconscious to create art. Exquisite Corpse appealed to them as it forced out logic and a pre-conceived conclusion.
For Jake and Dinos Chapman (1966 and 1962-), who have worked collaboratively since they left the Royal College of Art in 1990, the game sums up their working practice, the inner workings of two minds captured as one. The brothers were associated with the Young British Artists or YBAs of the 1990s. Their work featured in Sensation at the Royal Academy in 1997, the exhibition that would come to define the careers of artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas and many more.
The Exquisite Corpse etchings were produced three years later and at first glance do not assault your senses and sensibilities as the sculpture does. However, on closer inspection the brothers’ continuing obsession with the macabre is still evident – the stuff of nightmares is buried in the detail.
Dismembered bodies and contorted faces are common characteristics of their work but what is interesting is the way these etchings have been rendered. The draughtsmanship and detailing lend them a delicacy that contradicts and almost disguises the subject matter. In an interview for The Independent in 2014 Dinos Chapman said: “This is what I love to do, tempt the viewer and then smack them.”
We’ve been collecting contemporary art since Aberdeen Art Gallery was established in 1885, largely thanks to the generosity of our founders who gave their time, money and works of art to build the collection, including a bequest by granite merchant Alexander MacDonald for the purchase of artworks no more than 25 years old.
Find out more in Gallery 1: Collecting Art. We can’t reproduce the Exquisite Corpse etchings here for copyright reasons, but they’re on display in Gallery 4: Human Presence at Aberdeen Art Gallery – come and see them, along with works by Tracy Emin and Gavin Turk, who are also mentioned in this article.
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