Death is Irrelevant: Selections from the Marc and Livia Straus Collection, 1975–2018

Like Prometheus, who shaped men out of mud, and Athena, who breathed life into these figures, do sculptures created in our image suggest a will to exist? Are they a form of self-preservation, a reflection of their creator’s environment, or a grasp at immortality? Death Is Irrelevant examines these questions through the presentation of figurative sculpture from the Marc and Livia Straus Collection. Featuring works created over a forty-year period (1975–2018) from seventeen different countries, it is a contemporary examination of our timeless inclination to recreate ourselves, explore fragility and mortality, and consider what it means to be alive.