Ikon presents the first exhibition in the UK dedicated to the work of Renaissance artist Carlo Crivelli.
Shadows on the Sky highlights his experimental use of perspective, trompe l’oeil (optical illusion) and sculptural relief to create illusions of illusionism. Such cleverness was conveyed with consummate craftsmanship and foiled by an extraordinary elegance. Crivelli’s paintings both suggest and undermine his own visual trickery to explore the coexistence of material and spiritual realities.
Organised in partnership with The National Gallery, the exhibition also includes loans from other leading institutions such as the National Trust, the Vatican Pinacoteca, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Wallace Collection, and the Gemäldegalerie.
Through these major loans – some for the first time – we are invited to reconsider Crivelli’s sophisticated understanding of the relationship between art and what it represents.
Shadows on the Sky was made possible by the inaugural Ampersand Foundation Award, which granted Ikon £150,000 in 2019 to realise a “curatorial dream”.
Image: Carlo Crivelli, The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele (c. 1489). Egg and oil on poplar, 141 x 87 cm. © The National Gallery, London. NG668.