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The Cult of Beauty

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Photograph of 3 gallery visitors looking at an installation. At the centre is multi-levelled podium covered in ornate coloured tiles. Resting on the defaces and suspended above are organically shaped glass vessels containing coloured liquid and natural substances. The wall behind in covered in renaissance images. The whole scene is dark but warmly lit.
Beauty Sensorium, 2023, Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The Cult of Beauty is at its quietest on weekdays and weekend mornings. At busy times, particularly on Saturdays, you may need to queue. If the queue extends beyond the queueing area, we will give you a timed ticket which gives you free entry later that day.

Our major new exhibition explores notions of beauty across time and cultures.

Around the world, beauty is constantly seen as an ideal worthy of going to great lengths to achieve. But what are the driving forces that lead us to believe in a myth of universal beauty, despite its evolving nature?

Featuring over 200 items, including historical objects, artworks, films and new commissions, the exhibition considers the influence of morality, status, health, age, race and gender on the evolution of ideas about beauty. We invite you to question established norms and reflect on more inclusive definitions of beauty.

This riveting show traces humanity’s obsession with beauty through time and cultures with a keen sense of the ludicrous and the shocking ★★★★★

The Observer

Exhibition highlights

Photograph of a gallery view showing 2 prominent statues. A female figure in white stone on the left and a bronze male figure to the right. Between them, hung on the far gallery wall is a photographic self-portrait by the artist, Cassils.
Central photographic artwork, Advertisement: Homage to Benglis, 2011, Cassils. © Cassils. Statues, Equiline Venus and Idolino. Courtesy of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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These two sculptures, Esquiline Venus and Idolino, are from 500 BCE and are the type that captured the public imagination from the 17th century onwards. They shaped what we think of as the ideal male and female bodies. In this exhibition we challenge these beliefs by showing the statues alongside ‘Sleeping hermaphroditus’, Cassils’ self-portrait, and Carlos Molta’s ‘Hermaphrodite (8)’.

Photograph of 2 gallery visitors standing chatting by a gallery exhibit. The exhibit has a nightclub ambience and is made up of a long stainless steel sink and several different sized tv screens.
Mirror, mirror on the wall: Beauty unravelled in the virtual scroll, 2023, Xcessive Aesthetics. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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This work by Xcessive Aesthetics is designed to evoke the feeling of a nightclub bathroom, where complete strangers might feel safe to connect with each other through shared experiences and a mutual affinity for beauty. Videos on mirrored screens give a social commentary of beauty ideals in a virtual world.

Photograph of an exhibition installation showing a solitary chair placed in the centre of a blue circular plinth. Under the chair are a pair of silver stilettos. Above the chair, a multitude of objects seem to be falling out down from the dark ceiling. These objects include clothes, photo albums and furniture.
(Almost) all of my dead mother's beautiful things, 2023, Narcissister. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Narcissister’s three-metre-tall hanging sculpture ‘(Almost) all of my dead mother’s beautiful things’ centres on the crushing weight of beauty ideals that are passed from one generation to another.

Photographic triptych. The image on the left shows a framed colour artwork. The image in the middle shows large framed oil pinging and the image on the right shows a plaster bust of an Egyptian figure.
Left to right: Krishna with Radha and three gopis, 19th century, unknown maker, Wellcome Collection. The Virgin of Guadalupe, 1745, unknown maker, Wellcome Collection. Bust of Nefertiti, plaster copy 1928 Clarke and Davies, Wellcome Collection/Science Museum Group. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Beautiful features have long been seen as a gateway to the spiritual in different belief systems, as shown by these three works. The print of Krishna challenges Christian associations of beauty with morals such as chastity. The Virgin of Guadalupe is a symbol of multicultural and multi-ethnic identities, especially in areas where different religions and cultural traditions meet. Nefertiti’s bust shows how an iconic figure can be a link between the earthly and spiritual.

Photograph of 2 gallery visitors looking at an oil painted portrait hung on a wall, surrounded by pastel pink curtains. The portrait shows a seated artist in ornate dress and pink hair, in the process of painting a similar portrait of herself within the original painting.
Perhaps We are All Fictions in the Eye of the Beholder, 2021, Xu Yang. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Reproduced with permission of Xu Yang. © Xu Yang.
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Xu Yang’s painting ‘Perhaps We are All Fictions in the Eye of the Beholder’ and Haley Morris-Cafiero’s photograph ‘Steam’ from ‘The Bully Pulpit’ project explore our relationship with self-perception. ‘Steam’ subverts the gaze of cyberbullies and reflects on the impact of social media on mental health. Xu Yang uses self-portraiture to assert her identity in the face of her experiences of racism during the pandemic.

Photograph of a grid of 4 by 4 square portraits of 16 people's head and shoulders. The background colour for each portrait matches the hues of the person's skin. Under each image is a Pantone reference.
Humanæ. Work in progress, 2023, Angélica Dass. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. © Angélica Dass.
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Brazilian artist Angelica Dass’s work ‘Humanea. Work in progress’ is an ongoing photographic project that demonstrates how race and identity cannot be pinned down to skin colour alone. She matches pixels from the nose of each subject to a Pantone colour that forms the background to show the absurdity of racism.

Photograph of an artist's gallery installation showing what looks like a rope ladder but which is made out of dark brown hair.
We Climb, 2021, Jennifer Ling Datchuk. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Reproduced with permission of Jennifer Ling Datchuk. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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‘We Climb’, by Jennifer Ling Datchuk, is a ladder braided in dark brown hair and held together by porcelain beads that carry words of affirmation from her East Asian community. It was created in the heat of the Stop Asian America and Pacific Islander Hate movement in America and reclaims the ladder imagery used in racist propaganda during the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Photograph of a wide gallery view showing display cases, benches and wall mounted artworks. At the centre is a double sided screen showing the projected image of a morphing human body. In this image the projected human figure is rotated 90 degrees.
Algorithmic Gaze II, 2023, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. © Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm.
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‘An Algorithmic Gaze II’ is an AI-generated animation showing an endlessly morphing human figure that never repeats. The artist invites us to think about the transient nature of bodies and beauty.

Photograph of a gallery visitor taking a photo of herself with a phone in the mirror at the centre of an installation. The mirror is surrounded by colour photos of lips, eyes and hands, some covered in make-up and hand written words. Scrawled across the mirror in what looks like red lipstick are the words, 'I've mistaken social pressure with self expression'.
It makes no sense being beautiful if no one is ugly, 2023, Makeupbrutalism. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Makeupbrutalism’s multimedia installation ‘It makes no sense being beautiful if no one else is ugly’ encourages us to question our beliefs, confront our raw selves beneath social pressure and to peel back the layers of the beauty industry.

Photograph of 2 gallery visitors stood at an open display case discussing and touching the tactile objects.
Designing Beauty gallery display. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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These displays explore beauty products and tools. The covered display reflects on the history of cosmetics in terms of their materials, design and technology. The open, tactile display showcases the influence of accessibility and sustainability in today’s rapidly evolving cosmetics sector.

Photograph of a gallery visitor leaning over and smelling a large glass vessel within an installation. At the centre is multi-levelled podium covered in ornate coloured tiles. Suspended above are organically shaped glass vessels containing coloured liquid and natural substances. The wall behind in covered in renaissance images. The whole scene is dark but warmly lit.
Beauty Sensorium, 2023, Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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The installation ‘Beauty Sensorium’ by Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy brings together historical references with reconstructions of Renaissance make-up recipes, inviting visitors to look, smell and touch.

Photographic diptych. The image on the left shows 2 framed photographic portraits of a woman with anatomical painting on her nose to simulate the tissue and structure beneath. The image on the right shows an open display with 2 silicone masks and other prosthetics used in nasal surgery.
The Disobedient Nose Project, 2022, Shirin Fathi. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. © Shirin Fathi.
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‘The Disobedient Nose’ is a series about “a nose that doesn’t want to be tamed”. The artist Shirin Fathi uses her own face to explore how women are defying society’s biases. This plastic-surgery training toolkit and silicone prostheses modelled after Shirin Fathi’s own face help reverse the role of artist and surgeon.

Photograph of a small room within an exhibition with a large film projected onto one wall. The still from the film shows a Black individual wearing a crown and regal gown, stood in front of a gallery of oil painted portraits. The room is furnished with stools, bean bags and benches.
Permissible Beauty, 2022. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Reproduced with permission of RCMG, University of Leicester/ Soup Co. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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This film and portrait project, ‘Permissible Beauty’, responds to the absence of Black queer visibility in British national history. Through new portraits of six Black queer Britons, it offers up an expanded depiction of British beauty for the 21st century.

Exhibition access content

A digital exhibition guide, with audio description, British Sign Language, captions and transcripts is available to use on your own phone or device.

This visual story contains information to help you plan and prepare for your visit.