Gavin Turk - Pandamonium 1
Gavin Turk
Between a Rock and Hard Place
Polyester resin, plywood, car body filler, gloss paint
H 29 x L 48 x W 45 cm
Lot no: 6
Gavin Turk has simply removed the mother panda and her baby from her rock, and just left us with – The Rock; a grey solitary tombstone bearing the artist’s iconic signature.
Estimated value: £5,000 - £7,000
Gavin Turk was born in 1967 in Guildford, Surrey He attended the Royal College of Art from 1989-91 were he was infamously refused his MA degree certificate from the Royal College of Art for his final show in 1991 entitled Cave. - a blue plaque modelled on English Heritage ones to commemorate the homes of notable figures from history. It was inscribed simply with the text, Borough of Kensington GAVIN TURK Sculptor worked here 1989-1991. Bestowed with instant notoriety, the work was purchased by Charles Saatchi and Turk has gone on to become one of Britain’s most successful Young British Artists of that generation. By making work that has a political element Turk makes us, the viewers, question our own position in society.
Selected exhibitions
2009 Venice Biennale, Italy
2009 Pop Life: Art in a Material World. Tate Gallery, London
2008 Burnt Out. Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland
2007 The Negotiation of Purpose. GEM Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
1997 Sensation. Royal Academy of Arts, London
Selected collections
Tate Gallery, London
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
British Council
Saatchi Collection
The auction
The pieces were auctioned on 12 October 2009 at Selfridges, Oxford Street, London to raise funds for WWF.
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