Freeze (exhibition)

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For the art fair and magazine Frieze see Frieze Art Fair

Freeze was the title of an art exhibition organised by Damien Hirst with other students from Goldsmiths College. The show took place in July 1988 in an empty London Port Authority building at Surrey Docks in London's Docklands. It was sponsored by the London Docklands Development Corporation and Olympia and York. Although often described as being in a warehouse, the exhibition was actually housed in an administration block.

1 The show
2 The exhibitors
3 See also
4 References

[edit] The show

The exhibition was originally conceived as a group effort, but during the preparation Hirst, who was still only in his second year at College and had more time on his hands, emerged as main organiser. Hirst and his collaborators consciously imitated the look of Charles Saatchi's first gallery in St John's Wood that had opened a few years earlier. Saatchi was an early visitor to the show where he was first introduced to Damien Hirst. Saatchi, who was already looking to acquire contemporary art from promising, unknown artists, purchased a piece by Matt Collishaw direct from the exhibition. Goldsmiths' lecturer Michael Craig-Martin used his influence in the London art world to get Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota to visit the exhibition.

Freeze is now seen as the seminal event for the group of artists later to be identified as the Young British Artists (YBAs—often written yBas), but a good number of artists later seen as YBAs were not at Goldsmiths and were not in the show. Furthermore, some of the artists in Freeze did not make it into the pantheon of the YBAs.

The catalogue for Freeze had surprisingly high production values for a student exhibition. It was designed by Tony Arefin and included an essay by art critic Ian Jeffrey. The catalogue was funded by the property developers Olympia and York, who had an interest in the Docklands area: Hirst had convinced them the project would have a strong community element. The title of the show came from the catalogue's description of Mat Collishaw's macro photograph Bullet Hole which showed a bullet striking a human head - "dedicated to a moment of impact, a preserved now, a freeze-frame". The catalogue is now a collectors item.

A group photo of the exhibitors outside the show is often reprinted but is not a complete record as Lane and Landy are not in the picture.

Following the show many of the artists secured dealers. The success inspired a second exhibition several months later, Freeze 2, featuring some artists from the first exhibition and some new faces from other London Art Schools. However, this second show was not as influential and is rarely referred to.

There was one contemporary review of the exhibition by Sacha Craddock. The BBC filmed the exhibition and interviewed some contributors; although the footage was not aired at the time, it has been used in programmes since.