ABOVE
IMAGE: Sarah Lucas
/ Self Portraits 1990-1998 /Eating a Banana /
1990/ Iris print
/ 78 x 82cm/ © the artist. Arts Council Collection,
Hayward Gallery, London.
How
to Improve the World
'It
is an exhibition not of the line, but of an open
field. It deliberately eschews the idea of a simple
narrative in favour of multiple juxtapositions which
may be complementary, contrasting, disjunctive,
contrary, amusing or otherwise'. Michael Archer
Overlapping Figures This
citation from Curator Michael Archer’s essay
in the exhibition catalogue sets out concisely
what to expect from the Arts Council Collection
and the Hayward’s latest show. How to Improve
the World celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the
Council by showing some of the 7,500 works that
have been collected during its lifetime by artists
such as Damien Hirst, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud
and David Hockney. It is only a slice of the collection,
but as slices go, it feels like a generous one.
The
history of the Arts Council and the Hayward Gallery
are closely related. At one time the gallery was
run by the Council and it continues, as part of
the South Bank Centre to display work from the
collection through touring exhibitions. Now it
is the venue for the first retrospective of the
collection since 1980, the longstanding relationship
between the two organisations makes the Hayward
the ideal setting for the show. Moreover, the
60s brutalism of the gallery is the ideal backdrop
for a collection that spans the last 60 years
and which deals with many of the political events
and artistic movements that developed during that
time. The minimalism of the building sits within
one of these movements, but its simplicity and
modernity serve as a fittingly bold counterpoint
to a collection full of strong statements.
As
Michael Archer suggests, there is no single narrative
in the exhibition and it seems as though to have
tried to find a unifying element for such an exhibition
would only ever have been a convenient fiction.
By its very nature, the collection is disparate.
The acquisition committee changes regularly and
correspondingly so do its views and priorities.
Hence in How To Improve the World we see a wide
variety of media: painting, sculpture, video and
(almost) purely conceptual works are all widely
represented in various forms. No medium is segregated
however and the broad themes that the curators
describe are not chronological or based on media.
Rather they are manifested through the juxtaposition
of works that otherwise may never have been seen
together were they not in the same collection.
The lack of a presiding rule of acquisition has
led to a collection that offers a dialogue describing
the world according to infinite conceptions of
it. And the best thing is, anybody visiting the
Hayward can engage with this process and form
their own view of the collection.
The
‘field’ that is this exhibition is
fertile ground for the viewer who looks for links
between the works. But for every point of connection,
there is refusal to be assimilated or a contradiction.
The Arts Council’s collection has not been
put together according to any consistent priority.
Often budgets are tight and individuals may bring
their own ideas, but this has not led to homogenisation.
In fact it has led to the opposite: a large and
impressive collection that spans a wide variety
of works, all of which are important and interesting
both uniquely and as part of the continuing dialogue
of the collection. The success of this approach,
and of the Council’s remit of providing
the opportunity of cultural engagement to the
UK would seem to be demonstrated by this exhibition.
That the founding of the Arts Council in 1946
can be seen as having improved the world is not
in doubt. Making art available is a good thing,
as is allowing people to make up their own minds
about works. This exhibition, by bringing together
such a body of works and not prescribing a way
of seeing or connecting them allows people to
engage and criticise in a way that more singular
narrative might not and that, at least, has to
be an improvement.
By
Will Horrocks
‘How
to Improve the World’
Runs to November 19, 2006
Hayward Gallery / London |
