Getting Emotional used the exhibition format to ask a series of timely, provocative, conceptual and cross-cutting questions about emotion in contemporary art. In Getting Emotional, these exhibition strategies included offering new interpretations of specific works and artists, contextualizing artists in untraditional ways, and incorporating scientific research about the way emotions work to both raise and answer questions about the role and experience of contemporary art.
Former ICA Chief Curator Nicholas Baume brought his keen intellect and passion challenging ideas and art to this exhibition. His willingness to navigate the complex waters of physiology, psychology, and the neurosciences provided ICA audiences the opportunity to see familiar works in a context that was new at the time, but even more, to challenge time-worn conventions about representational art and the interplay between conceptually based art and emotion.