Freeze (exhibition)

"Freeze" was the title of an art exhibition organised by Damien Hirst with other students from Goldsmiths College. The show took place in July 1988 in an empty London Port Authority building at Surrey Docks in London Docklands.

The Freeze exhibition was sponsored by the London Docklands Development Corporation and Olympia and York. Although it has often been described as being in a warehouse, the exhibition was actually housed in an administration block.

The show

Angus Fairhurst was a final year student at Goldsmiths College, London, who had organised a show of student work in February 1988, which was a precursor to the "Freeze" exhibition which occurred in July that year. [Akbar, Arifa; Powell, Mariane. [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/artist-behind-1990s-boom-commits-suicide-803101.html "Artist behind 1990s boom 'commits suicide'"] , "The Independent", 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.]

"Freeze" was originally conceived as a group effort, but during the preparation Damien Hirst, who was still only in his second year at college (the same year as Fairhurst) and had more time on his hands, emerged as main organiser. Hirst and his collaborators consciously imitated the look of Charles Saatchi's first gallery in St John's Wood that had opened a few years earlier. Saatchi was an early visitor to the show where he was first introduced to Damien Hirst. Saatchi, who was already looking to acquire contemporary art from promising, unknown artists, purchased a piece by Matt Collishaw direct from the exhibition. Goldsmiths lecturer Michael Craig-Martin used his influence in the London art world to get Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota to visit the exhibition.

"Freeze" is now seen as the seminal event for the group of artists later to be identified as the Young British Artists (YBAs—often written yBas), but a good number of artists later seen as YBAs were not at Goldsmiths and were not in the show. Furthermore, some of the artists in "Freeze" were not acknowledged in the later pantheon of the YBAs.

The catalogue for "Freeze" had surprisingly high production values for a student exhibition. It was designed by Tony Arefin and included an essay by art critic Ian Jeffrey. The catalogue was funded by the property developers Olympia and York, who had an interest in the Docklands area: Hirst had convinced them the project would have a strong community element. The title of the show came from the catalogue's description of Mat Collishaw's macro photograph "Bullet Hole" which showed a gun shot wound to a human head (taken from a pathology textbook) [http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/mat_collishaw_bullet_hole.htm] - "dedicated to a moment of impact, a preserved now, a freeze-frame". The catalogue is now a collectors item.

The exhibition is often said to have been a response to economic crisis and the recession, during which very little money was spent on art. However, although other, later exhibitions of its kind may have been, "Freeze" itself happened just slightly earlier than the recession. A group photo of the exhibitors outside the show is often reprinted but is not a complete record as Lane and Landy are not in the picture. Following the show many of the artists secured dealers. The success inspired a second exhibition several months later, "Freeze 2", featuring some artists from the first exhibition and some new faces from other London art schools. However, this second show was not as influential and is rarely referred to. There was one contemporary review of the exhibition by Sacha Craddock. The BBC filmed the exhibition and interviewed some contributors; although the footage was not aired at the time, it has been used in programmes since.

The exhibitors

Two young artists turned down the chance to be in the exhibition. Dominic Denis was listed in catalogue but did not show work. The 16 students who did exhibit at "Freeze" were:

*Steven Adamson
*Angela Bulloch
*Mat Collishaw - "Bullet Hole" purchased by Charles Saatchi
*Ian Davenport
*Angus Fairhurst
*Anya Gallaccio
*Damien Hirst
*Gary Hume - door paintings
*Michael Landy
*Abigail Lane
*Sarah Lucas
*Lala Meredith-Vula
*Richard Patterson
*Simon Patterson
*Stephen Park
*Fiona Rae

Notes and references

ources

* [http://members.lycos.co.uk/exposuremagazine/yba.html Exposure Magazine] article on the YBAs
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/saatchigallery/story/0,13250,938547,00.html Guardian Newspaper article]