London gallery to host exhibition of 'invisible art'

A leading British gallery is to push the boundaries of visual art with an exhibition of works which cannot be seen.

London’s Hayward Gallery will gather together 50 “invisible” works by leading figures such as Andy Warhol, Yves Klein and Yoko Ono for its display of works you cannot actually see.

It is thought to be the first such exhibition staged at a major institution in the UK.

Gallery bosses say the £8 (€10) a head exhibition demonstrates how art is about “firing the imagination”, rather than simply viewing objects.

'Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957 – 2012' opens on June 12 and includes an empty plinth, a canvas of invisible ink and an unseen labyrinth.

It includes work and documents from French artist Klein who pioneered invisible works in the late 1950s with his concept of the “architecture of air”.

Also in the exhibition will be Warhol’s work 'Invisible Sculpture' – dating from 1985 – which consists of an empty plinth, on which he had once briefly stepped, one of many explorations of the nature of celebrity.

Another, '1000 Hours of Staring' is a blank piece of paper at which artist Tom Friedman has stared repeatedly over the space of five years, and another by the same artist 'Untitled (A Curse)' is an empty space which has been cursed by a witch.

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, said: “I think visitors will find that there is plenty to see and experience in this exhibition of invisible art.

“From the amusing to the philosophical, you will be able to explore an invisible labyrinth that only materialises as you move around it, see an artwork that has been created by the artist staring at it for 1000 hours, walk through an installation designed to evoke the afterlife, and be in the presence of Andy Warhol’s celebrity aura.

“This exhibition highlights that art isn’t about material objects, it’s about setting our imaginations alight, and that’s what the artists in this show do in many varied ways.”

The exhibition forms part of the Southbank Centre’s summer-long Festival Of The World with MasterCard.

Also featured among the exhibits will be a series of typed instructions by Ono, encouraging viewers to conjure up an artwork in their minds, Jeppe Heine’s 'Invisible Labyrinth' in which visitors negotiate their way around a maze wearing digital headphones activated by infra-red beams.