Exploring the idea of routine and regulation, this exhibition reflects on the ‘rules’ that we live by today. Taking as its starting point the Rule of St Benedict, written in the 6th century, as a paradigmatic example of a guide for communal living, it brings together extraordinary objects from medieval monastic contexts – the Hatton Codex, the earliest copy of the Rule of St Benedict in the world, made in c. 700 AD; the Etheldreda Panels – one of only a handful of English medieval paintings to have survived the Reformation; and the Ormesby and Macclesfield psalters, the most important illuminated manuscripts of the 14th century – with contemporary works by artists including Andrea Büttner, Tacita Dean, Ingrid Pollard, Elizabeth Price and Lucy Skaer.
The exhibition vividly presents the richness and complexity of the dialogue between medieval experiments in a different way to live, and modern reflections upon how life is (and might yet be) organised.
'Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval' is curated by Dr Jessica Barker FSA, Senior Lecturer in Medieval Art History at The Courtauld and Dr Ed Krčma, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of East Anglia.
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This exhibition is part of the Sainsbury Centre's 'What is the Meaning of Life?' season.
Image caption: Andrea Büttner,Dancing Nuns, 2007,woodcut on paper, 180x 113 cm. All imagescourtesy of HollybushGardens, London;David KordanskyGallery, Los Angeles;Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz,and JanMot, Brussels© Andrea Büttner / VGBild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
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The Sainsbury Centre continues its innovative series of investigative exhibitions in 2026 with a new programme that examines the fundamental questions of human existence, from rule-making, to time and play.
Concurrent exhibitions and interventions ask What is the Meaning of Life?, featuring:
· Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval, 16 May – 4 October 2026
· Play Power, 16 May – 4 October 2026
· Joy Like Time, 20 June – 15 November 2026
· Life in the Multiverse: Libby Heaney, 16 May – 4 October 2026
· CATKINS FOREVER: Ruth Ewan, 20 June – 15 November 2026
- Exhibitions
- Sainsbury Centre