Barbican gets Seduced

The Stanton Williams-designed exhibition Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now opens today at the Barbican in London.

It features more than 300 works spanning 2000 years and includes pieces by Picasso, Rembrandt, Turner and Warhol.

Stanton Williams founder Paul Williams has designed the exhibition over two levels, using the double-height aspect of the gallery to construct a tall central structure. Rooms within the structure house the most intimate works in the collection.

The show opens with a cast of the fig leaf worn by Michelangelo’s David in Victorian times. Next, a Roman marble of a satyr and nymph embracing is displayed alongside Chris Cunningham’s film Flex, made in 2000. A little-known Picasso painting, Erotic Scene, will also be on show.

Stanton Williams also designed Pop Art Portraits, which opened at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday and continues until 20 January.

Seduced runs until 27 January. See www.barbican.org.uk for details.