Lynne-Cooke-Damien-Hirst-Exhibition
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ER.JUL.pg.proof.corrs_Layout 1 15/06/2012 10:38 Page 504 EXHIBITIONS paintings he made before travelling to London The curators conceived telling juxtapo - in 1760; here the influence of contemporary sitions and sightlines within and between French art, in particular the work of François galleries, but the transition between the Indian Boucher, is palpable. This painting, a still life section and the last, entitled ‘Revolution, of the same year (no.6), and a painting entitled Reaction and Retirement’, was somewhat Time clipping the wings of Love, dated 1761 abrupt, as if the curators literally ran out of (no.9), that is, after his arrival in London, form space. The Sackler Galleries can hardly be a visual bridge to the next sections on Zoffany described as generous for the staging of an and the London stage and his association with exhibition of this scale and complexity, the Academy. Indeed, the curators organised although the close nature of the hang, along the gallery hang so that visitors could view with the dark wall colours and dramatic spot these earlier paintings in conjunction with lighting, added to the intensity of the visitor’s examples of his theatrical compositions in the experience. But the lack of space dedicated to next gallery, allowing the contrasting style and the final section may explain why The death of subject of works such as David Garrick and Mrs Captain Cook (c.1798; no.107) was not shown Cibber as Jaffier and Belvidera in ‘Venice Preserv’d’ in London, which was a pity because Zoffany (1762; no.19) to be seen and understood. Zof- was Joseph Banks’s original choice as artist to fany was primarily a portrait painter and most accompany Cook’s second voyage to the of the exhibition was given over to his con- South Seas (in the event, Zoffany’s friend versation pieces and full-length society por- William Hodges made the voyage) and traits. The translation of Zoffany’s style, from because the painting’s grouping with two 35. The physical impossibility of death in the mind of small to large format, brings into sharp focus equally macabre revolutionary subjects, Plun- someone living, by Damien Hirst. 1991. Glass, painted his continental training and artistic develop- dering the king’s cellar at Paris (exh. RA1794; steel, silicone, shark and formaldehyde, 217 by 542 ment in Rome. Indeed, the tautness of these no.104) and A scene in the Champs de Mars, cel- by 180 cm. (Private collection; exh. Tate Modern, London). compositions with blocks of bold, contrasting ebrating over the bodies of the Swiss soldiers (c.1794; colours, brings him closer to the grand-tour no.106), was, to my mind, the unexpected portraiture of Pompeo Batoni than to the freer coup de théâtre of the display at New Haven. by the recently opened semi-private Saatchi handling and subtle tones of, for example, Such practicalities often influence exhibitions Gallery in north London, where monumental Thomas Gainsborough. However, Zoffany’s as they adapt to different venues, however, and works by Minimalist artists such as Donald maturity and range were underlined by the should in no sense overshadow the undoubted Judd and Richard Serra were presented in a works from his stay in India, from the austere achievement of the curators in realising such a renovated industrial space, Hirst masterminded portrait of the Governor General, Warren thoughtful and thought-provoking exhibition. Freeze. The three-part group show, compris- Hastings (no.80), and the chaotic Colonel ing mostly the work of his fellow students, Mordaunt’s cockfight (no.86) to his Nagaphon 1 M. Webster: exh. cat. Johan Zoffany, 1733–1810, proved pivotal in that it both launched his Ghut, Upper India (no.95), where the artist London (National Portrait Gallery) 1976; and idem: generation to critical acclaim, and identified reimagines the Mughal landscape through the Johan Zoffany, New Haven and London 2011, reviewed Hirst as the most precocious and ambitious work of Joseph Wright of Derby and others. by Desmond Shawe-Taylor in this Magazine, 154 among his peers. Although it was located in a (2012), pp.351–52. 2 Catalogue: Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed. semi-derelict warehouse in the then far from Edited by Martin Postle. 320 pp. incl. 225 col. + 5 chic south London, he ensured that leading b. & w. ills. (Yale University Press, New Haven and figures from the art world would attend by London, 2011), £40 (HB). ISBN 978–0–300–17604–9. dint of a sophisticated press campaign and the provision of a fleet of taxis to expedite their travel from central London. Seeing Serra’s work at Saatchi’s Boundary Road gallery had been formative for Hirst on several levels. ‘It Damien Hirst was one of those big moments in my life, when the power of art really hits home’, he London remarked recently, adding in a telling aside: ‘The work goes from something conceptual by LYNNE COOKE to something in the real world, like a life threatening object, in the blink of an eye’.2 SPANNING SOME TWENTY-FIVE years, the Key among subsequent chapters in the nar- mid-career survey of Damien Hirst’s work at rative of Hirst’s preoccupation with present - Tate Modern, London (to 9th September), ation and marketing was Pharmacy, a bar and offers the first opportunity in Britain to gauge restaurant he launched (with three partners) in the significance of its most celebrated con- the later 1990s. Located in Notting Hill Gate, temporary artist.1 What is at stake is not, how- it served inter alia as a high-visibility watering ever, just the work that is on view. Hirst’s hole for friends and associates. Several years practice encompasses more than a plethora later, capitalising on the direct access that of diverse artefacts. From his debut in 1988 auction houses purportedly offer to buyers he has been involved in the staging of exhi - who are intimidated or otherwise wary of bitions, the creation of an artistic brand and the gallery system, Hirst bypassed his dealers the fabrication of a public persona. and sold an extensive body of new work Hirst curated his first show in 1988, while direct from the studio. A two-part auction at still an undergraduate at Goldsmiths College Sotheby’s, London, on 15th and 16th Sep - of Art in London. His conviction that the art tember 2008, this high-profile event garnered world as it then existed could not accom - the artist an astonishing £111 million in sales 34. Thomas King as Touchstone in ‘As You Like It’, by modate his generation led to the conclusion revenue. Fortuitously, it took place on the Johan Zoffany. 1780. Canvas, 91 by 55.5 cm. (Garrick that he and his colleagues would have to rein- same day that Lehmann Brothers, the stalwart Club, London; exh. Royal Academy of Arts, London). vent it, tailoring it to their own ends. Inspired of the American financial system, collapsed, 504 july 2012 • cliv • the burlington magazine ER.JUL.pg.proof.corrs_Layout 1 15/06/2012 10:38 Page 505 EXHIBITIONS bankrupt. As the financial crisis spread globally, for a signature mode that would permit end- plated, sometimes in stainless steel vitrines, a small sector of the contemporary art world less, infinitely repeatable variants. In addition, wreathed in a patina of Gucci and Swarovski. continued to prove itself largely immune: cer- that gallery includes several works referencing According to Hirst, having money ensures tain kinds of art seem able to triumph over kitchenware in which his characteristic quick ‘greater control’ – presumably over both the life’s devastating forces. Hirst’s savvy staging take – here, on the leading sculptors of production and dissemination of his work. of this unprecedented sale coupled with its the moment, Tony Cragg and Julian Opie – is Where artists in previous decades sought to serendipitous timing demonstrates his keen manifest. In an interview with the American control the distribution and reception of their grasp of the infrastructure and mechanisms of artist Richard Prince published years later, works in order to extricate themselves as far as the art world, and his almost uncanny skill in Hirst confirmed that he is not interested in possible from what they perceived as problem- shaping it to his own ends. originality and that he constantly steals from atic aspects of the commercial, mainstream art Tellingly, when planning this retrospective other artists. In the best of his works, such world, Hirst, by contrast, has employed those at Tate Modern, Hirst handed over curatorial as the series of early medicine cabinets mechanisms to embed himself more securely control in large part to Ann Gallagher, Head (Fig.36), this has proved a productive strategy. at its centre. of Collections (British Art) at Tate, thereby The cabinets, their shelves brimming with Since the later 1990s Hirst’s audience has ensuring that all the appurtenances of a high- pharmacological offerings, deftly marry Con- ballooned to include a coterie of mega-rich ly professional presentation would be clearly ceptual and Minimalist methodologies, a the- collectors that now stretches across a North in place. Gallagher’s checklist of some seven- matics grounded in pathology and healing, American/Western European axis to include ty works judiciously winnows the selection and a metaphysics probing immortality. the Middle East, former Soviet states, and to omit many less successful recent works, These impressive early works provide a high beyond. Its global reach operates at yet other such as an extensive series of paintings from benchmark against which the more recent levels, with equal efficacy, courtesy of the c.2006–08 that bear the heavy imprint of production must be judged.