* Art / Bar – A gallery visit with a friend i.e. lets see some art, inspire ourselves, feel proud we did something and then get a glass of wine and gossip.
Art: Damien Hirst, Tate Modern
He is the man who shocked us all in 1999 at the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy. It made him a household name, as the papers screamed about his sensational art including pickled cows, sheep and sharks.
His story began at the Freeze show in 1988 where Damien Hirst exhibited and curated his work with his friends from Goldsmiths College. He caught the eye of Charles Saatchi and well the rest is history. Then in 2008, he sold it all at Sotheby’s for over £111 million.
This show is the biggest survey of his work in the UK ever. Spanning almost the last 25 years, the exhibition focuses on Damien Hirst’s journey from an unknown artist to one of the most influential artists of his generation.
This exhibition is though provoking and visually intensive on such a massive scale. Go to see his real moment-changing works – like the sharks in the formaldehyde. Their scale is so big and they emit a strange eerie calmness which envelops you as you observe them. It’s exactly what good art does – it makes you think and react to what you see.
This show will be one we talk about for years to come.
Bar: Tate Modern, Level 7 Restaurant
As this is the first Art/Bar post lets keep it simple and close by. And it’s can’t get closer that the same building. The view from this bar is fantastic across the river to St Paul’s. The bar is part of the Level 7 restaurant so is more a hang out for a few hours, rather than an all night destination. But it’s perfect for the art/bar needs.
Top tip: If you buy a Tate membership, you gain access to the members room which also sells wine and has a terrace overlooking the river. The views are also stunning. Oh and don’t forget the Tate Modern summer opening hours to 10pm on a Friday and Saturday.
So get your wine, discuss the merits of Damien Hirst and then get on with some good old-fashioned gossiping.
For more information visit Tate Modern.
Top picture: Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011
Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates
