Botticelli Reimagined

     

‘Botticelli Reimagined’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London is the largest Botticelli Exhibition in Britain since 1930 with over 50 original works, also including over 100 other master-pieces from artists such as René Magritte, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Cindy Sherman, Bill Viola and Andy Warhol. The exhibition tells the story of Sandro Botticelli’s rediscovery in the 19th century and the influence of his work on art, design and fashion up until the present day.
The design by Duncan McCauley follows the curatorial approach of a reverse chronology and has created specific atmospheres for the three spatial sequences. The visitors move from darkness into the light, from the present into the past. Sightlines between the rooms and between specific paintings allow the visitors to draw connections between the original Botticelli’s and the works they inspired. The narrative of the exhibition starts in the present and takes the visitor on a journey from the reception of Botticelli’s image of beauty and the influences of his work on twentieth century art, his rediscovery in the nineteenth century to the final room where the original Botticelli’s are displayed.