The novelist, Virginia Woolf once made an observation that literature has ‘done its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear.'
Similarly, the visual art - whether academic conventions or the study of the ideal - tends to focus on interpretation of the mind rather than the body. The human body is used merely as a vehicle to convey the deeper spiritual meanings, inner thoughts or emotions of the artist. This virtual exhibition brings together a group of works by the artists who explore this conflict between the mind and the body that is both deeply personal and universal to challenge our perception of the human body.
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Red Landscape with Figures 1964
John Keith Vaughan (1912–1977)
Oil on canvas
H 122.2 x W 91.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Still Point 1993
Gwen Hardie (b.1962)
Oil on canvas
H 200 x W 200 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Falling from Grace 1991
Gwen Hardie (b.1962)
Oil on canvas
H 200 x W 200 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Restraining Coat II (Female) 1995
Julie Roberts (b.1963)
Oil & acrylic on canvas
H 152.4 x W 152.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Cherries, Forbidden Fruit and Pear in a Landscape 1991
Alison Watt (b.1965)
Oil on canvas
H 152 x W 60.6 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Torso 1932
Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Pope I (Study after Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez) 1951
Francis Bacon (1909–1992)
Oil on canvas
H 197.8 x W 137.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Francis Bacon (1909–1992), Study No. 6 (Head and Teeth) 1978
Clive Barker (b.1940)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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J. Y. M. Seated 1976
Frank Helmuth Auerbach (b.1931)
Oil on board
H 50.8 x W 45.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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L'homme qui marche 1877
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Iris 1976
Gavin Scobie (1940–2012)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Seated Torso 1923
Frank Dobson (1886–1963)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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The Green Chemise c.1931
Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith (1879–1959)
Oil on canvas
H 72.4 x W 92.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Woman with a Cat 1944
Jankel Adler (1895–1949)
Oil on canvas
H 112.2 x W 87.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Reclining Nude (II) 1955
William Brooker (1918–1983)
Oil on canvas
H 63.3 x W 76.2 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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An Angel Ascending to Heaven 1969 & 1983–1989
Angus Menmuir Neil (1924–1992)
Oil on board
H 118.4 x W 118.6 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Woman in Green 1949
Robert Colquhoun (1914–1962)
Oil on canvas
H 101.3 x W 51.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
© the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Image credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Untitled 1992
Christopher Le Brun (b.1951)
Oil on canvas
H 160.2 x W 190.2 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Serb and Muslim 1994
Peter Howson (b.1958)
Oil on canvas
H 213.5 x W 152.5 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Group of Figures 1968
John Keith Vaughan (1912–1977)
Oil on canvas
H 101.5 x W 91.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Threnody c.1970
Robin Philipson (1916–1992)
Oil on hand-collaged paper on canvas
H 185.5 x W 138.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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The Blue Petticoat c.1912
Spencer Gore (1878–1914)
Oil on canvas
H 35.3 x W 30.1 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Woman Unknown to Herself 1993–1994
Lilian Strang Neilson (1938–1998)
Oil on hardboard
H 122.5 x W 244.7 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Triple Goddess 1989
Arlene Isbister (b.1966)
Waxed acrylic on canvas
H 244 x W 120 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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One of the Stations of the Dead 1933–1937
Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
Oil on canvas
H 127.6 x W 75.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
© by kind permission of the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust (a registered charity) / Bridgeman Images. Image credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Old Woman in Church c.1948
Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (1921–1963)
Charcoal on buff paper
H 44 x W 60.7 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Evening Star c.1940–1944
James Cowie (1886–1956)
Oil on canvas
H 137.5 x W 133.4 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Noon 1946
James Cowie (1886–1956)
Oil on canvas
H 57 x W 57 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Seated Girl Holding a Piece of Sewing 1915–1925
Gwen John (1876–1939)
Oil on canvas
H 41 x W 33 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Irish Girl c.1940
Victor Pasmore (1908–1998)
Oil on canvas
H 61.4 x W 51 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Head of a Man
Hermann Gross (1904–1988)
Sterling silver
H 37 x W 20 x D 37 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Head of a Young Girl 1975
Stephen Buckley (b.1944)
Enamel over acrylic on canvas
H 208.2 x W 170.1 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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A Girl's Head 1925
Clara Klinghoffer (1900–1970)
Oil on canvas
H 45.4 x W 41.1 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Portrait Head 1965
Angus Menmuir Neil (1924–1992)
Oil on board
H 51.2 x W 41 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Stretching 1963
Bernard Dunstan (1920–2017)
Oil on canvas
H 61 x W 51 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
© the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Image credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Seated Nude 1940
William Scott (1913–1989)
Oil on canvas
H 61 x W 50.9 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Woman Resting 1951
Reg Butler (1913–1981)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Screen Relief – Girl 1972
Ralph Brown (1928–2013)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Position de quatrième devant sur la jambe gauche 1882–1895
Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Seated Figure 1925–1974
Emilio Greco (1913–1995)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Annunciation 1937–1946
Gwynneth Holt (1909–1995)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Figure on Steps 1956
Henry Moore (1898–1986)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Les trois belles 1950
Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967)
Brass
H 78.5 x W 34.5 x D 18 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Uncle Roy
Keith Wilson (b.1965)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
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Five Set Conversation Pieces 1998
Christine Borland (b.1965) (by or after)
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums