Friday, 14 December 2007
Damien Hirst has given four seminal works of art to the Tate from his personal collection, including a copy of his Turner Prize-winning installation. He plans to donate up to 30 of his most celebrated works to the gallery.
This is the first major gift to a museum by Hirst, the world's most expensive living artist. He said yesterday that he wanted "these pieces to represent me properly" and that he had been in discussion with the gallery for the past three years.
"It means a lot to me to have works in the Tate. I would have never thought it possible when I was a student," he said. "I think giving works from my collection is a small thing if it means millions of people get to see the work displayed in a great space."
These first four works, which will be exhibited at Tate Britain by next spring, are The Acquired Inability to Escape, which was included in his first solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1992; Life Without You, from 1991, a companion to the cabinet piece Forms Without Life which is already in Tate's collection; one of the first of Hirst's dead fly paintings entitled Who is Afraid of the Dark?; and the exhibition copy of Mother and Child Divided, which is currently on display at Tate Britain and is a version of the original installation for which he won the Turner Prize in 1995.
As part of his programme to donate up to 30 works to the Tate, Hirst has bought back pieces from gallerists including Charles Saatchi as well as dealers and auctioneers. The next phase of giving will be in another three to four years.
Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, said the gift was an "astonishing gesture". "With such a limited budget for acquisitions, and when art market prices are high, Tate is indebted to international contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst for working with us on building the collection," he said.
The Acquired Inability to Escape is a large vitrine containing cigarettes, lighter, ashtray and stubs, apparently referring to themes of luxury, danger and death. Life Without You consists of an arrangement of sea shells laid on a desk. In Who is Afraid of the Dark?, dead flies cover the entire canvas, while Mother and Child Divided comprises a cow and calf, each bisected.
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