Alice Pelot
The Barbican: Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector
12 February 2015 - 25 May 2015
Artists: Arman, Peter Blake, Hanne Darboven, Edmund de Waal, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Dr. Lakra, Sol Lewitt, Martin Parr, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol, Pae White, Martin Wong/Danh Vo
The Barbican: Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector
12 February 2015 - 25 May 2015
Artists: Arman, Peter Blake, Hanne Darboven, Edmund de Waal, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Dr. Lakra, Sol Lewitt, Martin Parr, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol, Pae White, Martin Wong/Danh Vo
The works of fourteen artists are being shown alongside their collectible scarves, artworks, and fossils, a perplexing number of kitsch cookie jars, and lurking, mythical taxidermy until May 25th at The Barbican's exhibition Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector. The proposed relationship between each individual artist's works, the objects they collect and their motivation for collecting is thoroughly supported in text and in curation, but another, more subtle transformation takes place between artwork and collectible. The transition from private, personal collection, to public gallery space where objects are collected and displayed to build and transmit knowledge, and shown next to art works, validates the objects with immense cultural value. To ask of the collected evidence: How do you inspire your collectors? as a Barbican visitor is not enough. A further question needs to be addressed. There is no quantifiable way to measure the cultural value granted an object by its inclusion in an artistic process, or the power an institution has to validate readymade objects as artworks (although the topic of readymades will be excused here as the collected objects are differentiated from the artist's works). So, a more personal question might be asked faced with the magic and mystery that is creative inspiration. How do we (the viewers) feel about the artist's works in the the presence of their inspiration? And how do artists affect the objects they collect?