The Wallace Collection is a national museum in London which displays works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Showcasing paintings by Titian, Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Diego Velázquez.
From the 14 October 2009 – 24 January 2010 the museum will be home to the Damien Hirst exhibition, presenting a collection of 25 paintings that have never been previously seen.
The collection, entitled “The Blue Paintings” will ensure that Hirst is only the second living artist to have a solo show at the museum (the first being artist Lucian Freud in 2004). Created between 2006 and 2008, these paintings represent a radical departure from the artist’s established working practice, they bear witness to a daring new direction in his work; a series of paintings that, in the artist’s words are “deeply connected to the past.”
The artwork will be displayed in the Wallace Collection’s intimate furnished rooms of silk-covered walls and gilded cornices. He said: “I’ve chosen to show my new paintings here because I love the fact that it is a family collection. It’s like a world away from the world. My new works somehow feel like they belong here with other works and objects from other times.”
(Prices for receptions with a private view of the Hirst exhibition start at £8,000 + VAT. Prices for dinners for up to 60 guests start at £9,000 + VAT, or for dinners for up to 160 guests the cost is £11,500 + VAT. For more details please contact the Events Office on +44 20 7563 9507 or email events@wallacecollection.org)
This extensive interview with Hirst in Bali opens several conversations on his blue paintings, money, power, death, and the nature of visual language. Read it at http://www.boldizar.com/blog/nonfiction/damien-hirst-new-paintings-interview/