David Cronenberg: Through the Eye

Through the Eye offers insight into iconic filmmaker David Cronenberg’s influences throughout his storied career. The late French artist Louise Bourgeois’ provocative hanging bronze Arch of Hysteria (1993) is one of five works on view from the National Gallery of Canada’s collection. Androgynous and headless, Bourgeois’ depiction of a sexualized body arched in pleasure or pain relates to many themes in Cronenberg’s vast filmography, as does Alex Colville’s Living Room (1999-2000), with its palpable sense of angst and shadowless scenery. John Scott’s Horror Files… (1993) and Mark Prent’s Ringturner (1982) are charged works-on-paper by artists who have captured Cronenberg’s interest and admiration for years. The same holds true for John Massey, whose gothic print of two disembodied arms, Versailles (1985), illustrates his fascination with the film screen, voyeurism and the intimate connections between the eye and the mind. The presentation is rounded off by Andy Warhol’s Electric Chair (Retrospective Series) (c. 1978), generously loaned by Marla and Larry Wasser, Toronto, and two works from Cronenberg’s own collection – a painting by the late William S. Burroughs and a print by graphic illustrator Charles Burns.