Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery will open with a show of paintings by John Hoyland, the British artist who objected to the Royal Academy’s 1997 Sensation exhibition of works by Young British Artists.
John Hoyland: Power Stations is due to open on 8 October (until 3 April 2016) and will include paintings from 1964 to 1982. Installed across all six galleries in the Newport Street space, it is the first major exhibition of Hoyland’s work since 2006; the artist, who was elected a Royal Academician in 1991, died in 2011.
In an interview between Hirst and Hoyland in RA Magazine in 2009, Hirst described Hoyland as “easily the greatest British abstract painter”. At that time, Hirst had just returned to the studio to paint after decades of creating conceptual pieces.
Designed by the British architects Caruso St John, the 37,000 sq. ft gallery in Vauxhall, south London, has been under construction for three years. The project cost around £25m and has been entirely funded by Hirst. The former YBA will organise group and solo exhibitions in the space drawn from his extensive Murderme Collection, which he started to build in the late 1980s. Entry to Newport Street Gallery will be free.
Alongside Hoyland, Hirst's 3,000-strong collection includes works by Francis Bacon, Banksy, Tracey Emin, Richard Hamilton, Jeff Koons, Picasso and Richard Prince, as well as indigenous artists from the Pacific Northwest Coast, taxidermy, anatomical models and ancient artefacts.
