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 Goldsm ...

(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 county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. Having attended

The Judd School The Judd School (often known simply as Judd) is a voluntary aided grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It was established in 1888 at Stafford House on East Street in Tonbridge, where it remained for eight years before moving to its present ...

between 1978 and 1985, he studied at

Canterbury Art College Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...

1985–1986, and graduated in 1989 in Fine Art at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

, where he was in the same year as

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

. 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 Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects. ...

. 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 electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

, 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 national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 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 neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

and ''Apocalypse'' at the Royal Academy 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 U ...

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 – a witty and telling remark that the art world is often only interested in speaking to itself. 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 Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

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 to fill the open mesh ...

on panels, largely 90 x 60 cm, which were initially displayed in ''The Missing Link'' exhibition (1998) in the

Sadie Coles HQ Sadie Coles HQ is a contemporary art gallery in London, owned and directed by Sadie Coles. The gallery focuses on presenting the work of established and emerging international artists. It was at the forefront of the Young British Artists movement ...

Gallery in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. 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

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 Bridge of Orchy ( gd, Drochaid Urchaidh) is a village in Glen Orchy in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is named after the crossing over the River Orchy, which was constructed by British Army during the pacification of the Highland Clans following ...

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 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 2 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008. He is survived by his mother and brother. Following his death, Sir

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. ...

, 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 U ...

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 committed suicide English contemporary artists 2008 suicides