Friday 20 March 2009

Pipe Dreams - Hirst follows Beatle down the tunnel

Kiev's Pinchuk Art Centre, brainchild of Ukrainian metal pipe billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, is poised to stage Requiem a major retrospective of the work of Damien Hirst from April 25th onwards.

The exhibition will showcase a hundred of the artist's most iconic works, including 'A Thousand Years', 'Away from the Flock' and 'Death Explained' a sculpture of a bisected shark, preserved in formaldehyde. It will also premiere a series of skull paintings done by Hirst between 2006 and 2008.

Unlike fellow oligarchs who plough their funds into football squads, Pinchuk - at $2.5bn rated the world's 246th richest man by the latest Forbes poll, is a vulture for culture and already boasts iconic works by Brit Hirst and American Jeff Koons in his personal art collection.

Crisis-hit Ukraine, where industrial production is plummeting by over 30% each month, may seem an unlikely venue for such an exhibition - the latest cultural extravaganza since Pinchuk jetted ex-Beatle Macca to Kiev for a major concert last June.

However, in a public statement, the gallery insisted Kiev was the perfect location "In hosting a major retrospective of one of the most important artists working today, the Pinchuk Art Centre is testament to Ukraine's ongoing cultural development."

To view further details of this exhibition click here.

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