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?
In the first room, Damien Hirst's wall cabinet of insects and butterflies from his Entomology series (2013) is distinguishable from the collected taxidermy counterparts by the sterility of the minimalist frame and the precise classification of insects. The displayed selection of Hirst's Murderme collection is an eerily eclectic memento mori including vintage and mythical taxidermy, skulls, anatomical models and objects of natural history. Many of Hirst's works from his Natural History series sit precariously on the edge between museum archive object and art work. The Barbican presents the relationship between artist and collector in this case, as being one in the same. Hirst is a collector whose interests conceptually are to do with mortality, and his artistic hand is one of selection, composition and display. Hirst is also given the power to reinforce the cultural value of historical objects as they are used directly in his works as readymade objects. But this responsibility is not limited to objects of scientific value, the power to dole out cultural value also extends to everyday objects as is exposed in the selected collection of Andy Warhol.
On the spectrum of collectors, Andy Warhol was a packrat, collecting almost anything in the spirit of mass consumption, and piling his findings on any available surface. The Barbican presents Warhol's motivation as a collector from two perspectives. As a child, without much money, their family had few possessions, so nostalgic object objects such as cookie jars and toys feature majorly in the display. Additionally, many of the objects he collected were mass produced, a system of production that inspired his artistic processes. This connection is emphasized by the seminal silkscreens of common household packaging displayed alongside domestic child hood artefacts. Warhol's collection affected his works in theme and production, but unlike Hirst, his collection did not physically feature in his work. In Warhol's practice, the cultural value granted his collected items is not forged through direct appropriation. The objects are given value through their roles as inspiration. Even in the forms of everyday objects, artistic inspiration is a mysterious force.
The connections between collections and works are visually accessible in artist rooms where motifs are borrowed, and object are appropriated directly from collections, but the Barbican also successfully connects conceptual dots. The space dedicated to Sol Lewitt is an autobiographical collection of artworks that influenced his practice at the time of acquisition. Lewitt's framed photo book Autobiography (1980), documenting his Manhatten apartment in nine panel grids is shown alongside Japanese woodblock prints, Modernist photography, and sheet music of Minimalist composers including Philip Glass and Steve Riech. The woodblock prints were collected during his service in the Korean War and reflect his printmaking studies, while the photography contributes to Bernd and Hilla Becher likeness of his photo book topology, and the support of his musical friends is evidence of their influence on his conceptual repetitions and systems. Many artists gather collectible or specialty items, some historical and medical documents, but Lewitt's collection of artworks is an exception because his inspiration for self-imposed systems evolves from other self-imposed systems with no direct foundation in nature, history or the everyday world.
The Barbican's exhibition Magnificent Obesessions: The Artist as Collector confronts the archaic and mysterious concept of the artist as divinely inspired and gifted with concepts and abilities from a cosmic force. Not only does this exhibition demonstrate that creative inspiration can come in the guise of everyday objects, but it also highlights the astute abilities of artists to follow meaningful cultural patterns and trends, as well as give those trends and objects cultural value. The works of fourteen artists, shown alongside related objects do not get lost amongst the collected articles. The works shine with evidence of artistic struggle or pleasure, of forethought and conceptual processes, and the collections are a welcome autobiographical accompaniment. The objects collected by artists clearly feature in their works providing insight to creative inspiration, intention and autobiography.