Angus Fairhurst (4 October 1966 – 29 March 2008) was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the

Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...

(YBAs).

Life and work

Angus Fairhurst was born in

Pembury Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of 6,128 at the 2011 census. It lies just to the north-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. Having attended The Judd School between 1978 and 1985, he studied at Canterbury Art College 1985–1986, and graduated in 1989 in Fine Art at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

, where he was in the same year as

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

. In February 1988, Fairhurst organised a show of student work, which was a precursor to the '' Freeze'' show largely organised by Hirst in July 1988 with sixteen other students from Goldsmith, including Fairhurst. Fairhurst and Hirst became close friends and collaborated on many projects. Fairhurst was also for several years the partner and sometime-collaborator of Sarah Lucas. Fairhurst's work was often characterised by visual distortion and practical jokes. An example is his drawing of a gorilla holding a fish under its oxter and both staring at a plate of chips. He worked in different media, including

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

, photography and painting, and is noted for sculptures of gorillas.Cramb, Auslan
"Britart founder Angus Fairhurst found hanged"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 1 April 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2008. Angus Fairhurst exhibited nationally and internationally after graduating from Goldsmiths. Exhibitions include ''Freeze'' and ''Some Went Mad and Some Ran Away'', ''Brilliant!'' at the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

and ''Apocalypse'' at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 2000. A 2004 exhibition ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'', was held at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

with Hirst and Lucas.

Gallery Connections

In 1991, he did a piece in which he networked together the telephones of leading contemporary art dealers in London so that they could only talk to each other. They were confused by what they perceived were crossed lines and were concerned that the Inland Revenue was investigating VAT fraud. The full transcript of Gallery Connections is available online. The work is now in the collection of the Tate. Occasionally, Gallery Connections is on display at Tate Britain and may be listened to. One gallery gives its phone number and listeners have been known to call them.

Underdone/Overdone Paintings

One of his late works is a series of silk-screens called ''Underdone/Overdone Paintings'', made in 1998. It consists of thirty paintings, acrylic

silk-screen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" ...

on panels, largely 90 x 60 cm, which were initially displayed in ''The Missing Link'' exhibition (1998) in the Sadie Coles HQ Gallery in London. The paintings depict abstract forms of a primeval forest with trees, coloured in the three primary colours. These were laid in varied combinations over each other at random over a sequence of thirty pictures. Fairhurst's work embodies an antithesis between the accumulation of forms and the reduction into formlessness. A similar technique of repetition and layering can be found in the ''Low, Lower and Lowest Expectations'' series (1996 – 1997).

Death

Fairhurst exhibited at Sadie Coles HQ in London. On 29 March 2008, the final day of his third solo show at the gallery, he was found hanging from a tree in a remote Highland woodland near Bridge of Orchy in Scotland, having taken his own life. Gregor Muir
"Obituary - Angus Fairhurst"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 2 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008. He is survived by his mother and brother. Following his death, Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

gallery, said:

References

Literature

*''Angus Fairhurst'', Sacha Craddock, James Cahill (foreword by Nicholas Serota), (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2009)

External links

Matthew Slotover on Angus Fairhurst

Angus Fairhurst on Sadie Coles HQ
(includes CV)
Angus Fairhurst in the Tate collection

Angus Fairhurst on Grimm Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairhurst, Angus 1966 births 2008 deaths People from Pembury British video artists Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Photographers from Kent English installation artists Suicides by hanging in Scotland People educated at The Judd School Artists who died by suicide English contemporary artists 2008 suicides