Editing Angus Fairhurst

{{Short description|English artist (1966–2008)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Angus Fairhurst
| image         = Angus Fairhurst.jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = Angus Fairhurst
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1966|10|4|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Pembury]], [[Kent]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2008|3|29|1966|10|4|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Bridge of Orchy]], Scotland
| nationality   = British
| field         = [[Conceptual art]], sculpture
| training      = [[Kent Institute of Art & Design|Canterbury Art College]], [[Goldsmiths, University of London]]
| movement      = [[Young British Artists]]
| works         =
| patrons       =
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        =
}}

'''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]] (YBAs).

==Life and work==

[[File:Fairhurst manabandoned.jpg|thumb|left|Fairhurst's ''Man Abandoned by Colour'' (1991)]]

Angus Fairhurst was born in [[Pembury]], [[Kent]]. Having attended [[The Judd School]] between 1978 and 1985, he studied at [[Kent Institute of Art & Design|Canterbury Art College]] 1985–1986, and graduated in 1989 in Fine Art at [[Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths College]], where he was in the same year as [[Damien Hirst]]. In February 1988, Fairhurst organised a show of student work, which was a precursor to the ''[[Freeze (exhibition)|Freeze]]'' show largely organised by Hirst in July 1988 with sixteen other students from Goldsmith, including Fairhurst.<ref>Akbar, Arifa; Powell, Mariane. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/artist-behind-1990s-boom-commits-suicide-803101.html "Artist behind 1990s boom 'commits suicide'"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.</ref> 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 art|video]], photography and painting, and is noted for sculptures of gorillas.<ref name=cramb>Cramb, Auslan. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080408011625/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/01/nbritart101.xml "Britart founder Angus Fairhurst found hanged"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 1 April 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2008.</ref>

[[File:Fairhurst-Couple-of-Differences.jpg|thumb|150px|''A Couple of Differences Between Thinking and Feeling II'', 2003, by Angus Fairhurst]]

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]] and ''Apocalypse'' at the [[Royal Academy]] in 2000. A 2004 exhibition ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'', was held at the [[Tate Gallery]] 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.frieze.com/angus_fairhurst_obituary/|title=Angus Fairhurst &#124; Blog &#124; Frieze Publishing|date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104618/http://blog.frieze.com/angus_fairhurst_obituary/|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> The work is now in the collection of the Tate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fairhurst-gallery-connections-t07294|title='Gallery Connections', Angus Fairhurst, 1991–6|website=Tate}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/fairhurst-gallery-connections-t07476|title='Gallery Connections', Angus Fairhurst, 1995|website=Tate}}</ref> 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 paint|acrylic]] [[Silk-screen printing|silk-screen]] on panels, largely 90 x 60&nbsp;cm, which were initially displayed in ''The Missing Link'' exhibition (1998) in the [[Sadie Coles HQ]] Gallery in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions-press-release/angus-fairhurst-the-missing-link-1998|title=Angus Fairhurst {{!}} The Missing Link 1998 {{!}} Sadie Coles HQ|website=sadiecoles.com|access-date=2016-08-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914140923/http://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions-press-release/angus-fairhurst-the-missing-link-1998|archive-date=14 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Angus Fairhurst|last=Craddock|first=Sacha|year=2009|location=London|pages=21f}}</ref> Fairhurst's work embodies an antithesis between the accumulation of forms and the reduction into formlessness.<ref name=":0" /> A similar technique of repetition and layering can be found in the ''Low, Lower and Lowest Expectations'' series (1996 – 1997).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Angus Fairhurst|last=Craddock|first=Sacha|year=2009|location=London|pages=20f}}</ref>

==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.<ref>{{citation | title= Angus Fairhurst (1966–2008)| author= Oliver Basciano  | publisher=ARTINFO  | date= 31 March 2008| url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27242/angus-fairhurst-19662008/| access-date=19 May 2008 }}</ref><ref>[[Gregor Muir]]. [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/apr/02/2 "Obituary - Angus Fairhurst"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 2 April 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.</ref> He is survived by his mother and brother.<ref name=cramb/>

Following his death, Sir [[Nicholas Serota]], director of the [[Tate]] gallery, said:
{{cquote|Angus Fairhurst was always deprecating about his own talent, but he made some of the most engaging, witty and perceptive works of his generation and was an enormously influential friend of other British artists who came to prominence in the early nineties.<ref>Brown, Mark. [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,2269742,00.html "Artist Angus Fairhurst dead at 41"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 31 March 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.</ref>}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080830010953/http://www.frieze.com/comment/article/angus_fairhurst_obituary/ Matthew Slotover on Angus Fairhurst]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080407041418/http://www.sadiecoles.com/index.php/site/category/angus_fairhurst/ Angus Fairhurst on Sadie Coles HQ] (includes CV)
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2591&page=1 Angus Fairhurst in the Tate collection]
* [http://www.grimmgallery.com/artists/angus-fairhurst/ Angus Fairhurst on Grimm Gallery]
{{Young British Artists|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

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