Gallery: ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’ at Luxembourg & Dayan

Displaying artworks from 1949 to 2014, in a range of media from watercolours to found-object sculptures, ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’ brings together evocative surreal artworks that explore the body; objectified, sexualised and grotesque.

The exhibition draws its title from Luis Buñuel’s 1977 film about a man’s lust and dangerous obsession with an elusive woman, and his ultimate demise. Hand-coloured prints of Hans Bellmer’s provocative, distorted faceless dolls from the 1930s set the tone for the surreal exhibition. The artists in varying ways contort the shapes of erotic body-parts to form haunting and disjointed images and objects. The central theme of the exhibition is desire, but it is generally the dark and sardonic side to these artworks that makes you look closer, and doesn’t let you look away.