Gallery hosts 'red-light streets'

The "red-light district" will be installed in the gallery in November 2009 Enlarge Image

Amsterdam's infamous red-light district is to be recreated in central London's National Gallery.

Visitors will peep through windows and doorways at mannequins dressed as prostitutes in the installation.

The Hoerengracht, by US artists Ed and Nancy Kienholz, will open in November next year.

A gallery spokesman said it would "shed light" on its collection of Dutch 17th Century masters, some of which will be displayed near the installation.

These will include Jan Steen's Interior of an Inn, a bawdy pub scene, and de Hooch's Musical Party in a Courtyard.

'Dodgy things'

The gallery's head of education, Colin Wiggins, said: "Visitors will be able to walk into the installation, which is like a succession of streets."

They will be able to see "dodgy things" going on in doorways and behind the windows, but Mr Wiggins said the gallery would not warn children against entering the installation.

"If you look at the National Gallery as a whole, there are more things to warn against," he said.

Next year the gallery will also stage new exhibitions of Spanish painting and sculpture, and works by Picasso.

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