Designed by architects Caruso St John, the building will contain six interconnected galleries as well as a restaurant and shop. It has been converted from five warehouses: three listed late Victorian scenery-painting studios flanked by two new-builds at either end. Hirst acquired the buildings over ten years ago and converted areas of them into studios which he and other artists have since used.
Newport Street Gallery has been in development for over three years. It is the result of Hirst’s long-term ambition to build a museum and to share his collection with the public, and his love of curating, which dates back to the beginning of his artistic career and the organisation of group shows such as ‘Freeze’ (1988) and ‘Modern Medicine’ (1990). The exhibitions presented at Newport Street will vary between single artist and group shows, and will be open to the public free of charge.
The inaugural show will be ‘Power Stations’, a solo exhibition of paintings by John Hoyland (1934–2011). Considered one of the greatest British abstract painters of his generation, Hoyland has previously been the subject of retrospectives at the Serpentine Gallery (1979–80) and the Royal Academy of Arts (1999). This will be the first major exhibition devoted to the artist since 2006, and will include paintings dating from 1964 to 1982, from Hirst's collection. The exhibition will spend all six of Newport Street's galleries and will be on display from 8th October 2015 until 3rd April 2016.
‘I’ve always loved art and art deserves to be shown in great spaces, so I’ve always dreamed of having my own gallery where I can exhibit work by the artists I love,’ explained Damien Hirst ahead of the museum’s opening. ‘I believe art should be experienced by as many people as possible and I’ve felt guilty owning work that is stored away in boxes where no one can see it, so having a space where I can put on shows from the collection is a dream come true.'
Hirst’s expansive and diverse collection, which he has been acquiring since the late 1980s, includes artists such as Francis Bacon, Banksy, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons, Sarah Lucas, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Haim Steinbach, Gavin Turk, and indigenous artists from the Pacific Northwest Coast such as Robert Davidson, James Hart and Don Yeomans, as well as artefacts and natural history specimens, taxidermy and anatomical models, amongst other historical objects. The collection has previously been the subject of major group exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2006) and the Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2013). Newport Street Gallery will now allow Hirst to dedicate time and space to exhibiting areas of his art collection for the public to interact with and enjoy.
Description of the project by Caruso St John Architects
This private gallery in Vauxhall has involved the conversion of an extraordinary terrace of listed industrial buildings, that were formerly theatre carpentry and scenery painting workshops. The gallery forms the whole length of the street, with the three listed Victorian buildings flanked at either end by new buildings. The ground and upper floors within the five buildings are connected by big doorways through the party walls, allowing them to be used flexibly in many combinations, for the installation of art and to accommodate large and small exhibitions. The project required the construction of a new first floor level within the very tall spaces of the victorian workshops, to create two levels of galleries, sequences of beautiful and lofty rooms that stretch from one end of the building to the other. The facades of the new buildings are made with a hard pale red brick that closely matches the surface of the listed buildings. Their elevations are judged somewhere between the distinct and the obvious, contributing to the variety of the ensemble. The five buildings next to each other, all different but obviously related, make a sheer and impressive street elevatione.
The plans include a restaurant designed by the client and administrative offices for the gallery. The building will have changing exhibitions and collections, and will be open to the public for free.
CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-
Architects.- Caruso St John Architects.
Project team.- Charles Bedin, Adam Caruso, Tim Collett, Jonas Djernes, Christiane Felber, Kornelia Gysel, Rod Heyes, Emily Keyte, Paul Maich, Kalle Soderman, Peter St John, Ted Swift, Stephanie Webs, Frank Wössner.
Dates.- 2004–2015.
Venue.- Newport Street Gallery, Newport St Lambeth, Londres SE11 6AQ. RU.
