Kunst zum Hören: Masken. Metamorphosen des Gesichts

This audiobook undertakes nothing less than a brief history of the mask from antiquity to the twentieth century. Mask were initially casts made from nature. They could be found in any artist’s studio, sometimes even whole stacks of them, and often served as models for the execution of a portrait. Death masks were even collected: Napoleon, Géricault, Beethoven. Their very special expressiveness, the fragmented face, inspired numerous sculptors to produce hallucinatory representations.

This guided audio tour tells of the “alarming strangeness” of masks and their fantastically designed forms based on about forty masterpieces from various cultures dating from between 1860 and 1930. Literary sources by writers such as Oscar Wilde or Claude Lévi-Strauss round off the picture. The accompanying book presents annotated works by Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Arnold Böcklin, and others in large-format color illustrations. (English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2416-6)

Exhibition schedule: Musée d’Orsay,Paris, October 21, 2008–February 10, 2009 · Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, March 8–June 7, 2009 · Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen, August 6–October 25, 2009

In conjunction with this exhibition a catalogue (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2387) is also available.