Works by Bacon, Koons, Lucas and Banksy likely to be among those that go on display in London in 2014
For the Love of God, Hirst’s £50m diamond
skull sculpture, which has not been seen in the UK since 2007, will be
the centrepiece of his show at Tate Modern in April.
As unprecedented security plans are drawn up to safeguard the centrepiece of the Damien Hirst show at Tate Modern,
his £50m diamond skull sculpture For the Love of God, the artist has
revealed his hopes for a public gallery he will open in south London in
2014.
"It's my Saatchi gallery, basically," Hirst told the Observer, describing the development project in Lambeth that will soon display the highlights of his personal collection of more than 2,000 artworks.
"It's about as big as the Whitechapel – six galleries, a café and a shop – and it's a place to show my collection of contemporary art. It feels bad having it all in crates. It's basically Bacon and beyond," said the artist.
He added that he had five paintings by the late Francis Bacon. "Which is great. He didn't make many and he's not making any more."
The collection also includes works by US artist Jeff Koons, Hirst's fellow Young British Artist star Sarah Lucas, and graffiti artist, Banksy.
Designed by New Art Gallery Walsall architect Caruso St John for Hirst's company Science Ltd, the gallery will be housed inside a long terrace of listed buildings, formerly used as theatre carpentry and scenery production workshops, and will be flanked by new buildings.
The ground and upper floors of the listed buildings will be linked to allow the space to be used for both small and large exhibitions and the plans include office rooms for Hirst himself and a restaurant.
This month the artist has also applied for permission to put his own money into building 500 new eco-homes near his house in north Devon.
Hirst's infamous platinum and diamond skull, made for him with materials worth £14m over 18 months by Bentley and Skinner of Bond Street, the jewellers who made the imperial state crown that is worn by the Queen for the state opening of parliament, will be displayed for free in Tate Modern's echoing Turbine Hall from 4 April inside a special viewing room.
It will be protected by the kind of security usually deployed around masterpieces such as Picasso's Guernica or a religious relic such as the Turin shroud, and uniformed guards will be stationed around the work.
The skull has not been seen in this country since 2007, when it was sold to a consortium that included the artist, but it has recently drawn crowds in Florence and Amsterdam.
The platinum cast of a human skull is encrusted with 8,601 pave-set diamonds weighing 1,106.18 carats, including a flawless, pink, pear-shaped diamond in the middle of the forehead. The cast's jaw is adorned with the skull's original teeth.
"I started thinking how, here in England, or the western world for that matter, we're obsessed with skulls and yet we avoid confronting death," the artist has explained.
Although there have been Hirst retrospectives in Naples and Monaco, this will be the first solo show in a major British institution – one in which the artist swore he would never show his work. It will be, Hirst explained, "a map of my life as an artist, not a greatest hits".
Nevertheless the show is to include the first "spot" painting, the first "spin" painting and the first medicine cabinet, along with the controversial shark in formaldehyde and Mother and Child Divided (1993), the installation featuring a bisected cow and calf suspended in four tanks.
Outside the gallery, Hymn, the artist's huge statue based on a child's educational anatomical model, will expose its internal organs to the Thames.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/mar/11/damien-hirst-skull-tate-gallery
"It's my Saatchi gallery, basically," Hirst told the Observer, describing the development project in Lambeth that will soon display the highlights of his personal collection of more than 2,000 artworks.
"It's about as big as the Whitechapel – six galleries, a café and a shop – and it's a place to show my collection of contemporary art. It feels bad having it all in crates. It's basically Bacon and beyond," said the artist.
He added that he had five paintings by the late Francis Bacon. "Which is great. He didn't make many and he's not making any more."
The collection also includes works by US artist Jeff Koons, Hirst's fellow Young British Artist star Sarah Lucas, and graffiti artist, Banksy.
Designed by New Art Gallery Walsall architect Caruso St John for Hirst's company Science Ltd, the gallery will be housed inside a long terrace of listed buildings, formerly used as theatre carpentry and scenery production workshops, and will be flanked by new buildings.
The ground and upper floors of the listed buildings will be linked to allow the space to be used for both small and large exhibitions and the plans include office rooms for Hirst himself and a restaurant.
This month the artist has also applied for permission to put his own money into building 500 new eco-homes near his house in north Devon.
Hirst's infamous platinum and diamond skull, made for him with materials worth £14m over 18 months by Bentley and Skinner of Bond Street, the jewellers who made the imperial state crown that is worn by the Queen for the state opening of parliament, will be displayed for free in Tate Modern's echoing Turbine Hall from 4 April inside a special viewing room.
It will be protected by the kind of security usually deployed around masterpieces such as Picasso's Guernica or a religious relic such as the Turin shroud, and uniformed guards will be stationed around the work.
The skull has not been seen in this country since 2007, when it was sold to a consortium that included the artist, but it has recently drawn crowds in Florence and Amsterdam.
The platinum cast of a human skull is encrusted with 8,601 pave-set diamonds weighing 1,106.18 carats, including a flawless, pink, pear-shaped diamond in the middle of the forehead. The cast's jaw is adorned with the skull's original teeth.
"I started thinking how, here in England, or the western world for that matter, we're obsessed with skulls and yet we avoid confronting death," the artist has explained.
Although there have been Hirst retrospectives in Naples and Monaco, this will be the first solo show in a major British institution – one in which the artist swore he would never show his work. It will be, Hirst explained, "a map of my life as an artist, not a greatest hits".
Nevertheless the show is to include the first "spot" painting, the first "spin" painting and the first medicine cabinet, along with the controversial shark in formaldehyde and Mother and Child Divided (1993), the installation featuring a bisected cow and calf suspended in four tanks.
Outside the gallery, Hymn, the artist's huge statue based on a child's educational anatomical model, will expose its internal organs to the Thames.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/mar/11/damien-hirst-skull-tate-gallery
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