Marc Quinn is one of the UK’s most important living artists and is part of the ‘YBA’ group that emerged in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Predominantly a maker of organic readymades and sculptures of the human body, his best known work is Self (1991), a replica of his own head cast in 4.5 litres of his own frozen blood, which was purchased by Charles Saatchi in 1991.
The piece was later exhibited in Saatchi’s Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1997, re-exhibited when the new Saatchi gallery opened in 2003 and then finally sold to an American…
Marc Quinn is one of the UK’s most important living artists and is part of the ‘YBA’ group that emerged in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Predominantly a maker of organic readymades and sculptures of the human body, his best known work is Self (1991), a replica of his own head cast in 4.5 litres of his own frozen blood, which was purchased by Charles Saatchi in 1991.
The piece was later exhibited in Saatchi’s Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1997, re-exhibited when the new Saatchi gallery opened in 2003 and then finally sold to an American collector in 2005 for a reported £1.5m.
Quinn’s work shows a preoccupation with the mutability of the body, the definition of human life and the distanced relationship we have with our physical being. Materials used, in addition to blood, have included ice, marble and lead, and the artist develops these paradoxes into conceptual works that are mostly figurative in form.
Another important piece in terms of public profile for Quinn was the frozen garden he made for Miuccia Prada in 2000, a walk-through installation of impossibly beautiful flowers that would never decay due to being kept in cryogenic conditions.
In 1999, Quinn began a series of marble sculptures of amputees, referencing the aspirations of Greek and Roman statuary. One such work depicted the artist Alison Lapper, who was born without arms and with shortened legs, when she was heavily pregnant. An enlarged version of this piece later became a major piece of public art when it appeared on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Quinn speaks about the work: “At first glance it would seem that there are few if any public sculptures of people with disabilities. However, a closer look reveals that Trafalgar Square is one of the few public spaces where one exists: Nelson on top of his column has lost an arm. I think that Alison’s portrait reactivates this dormant aspect of Trafalgar Square. Most public sculpture, especially in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall areas, is triumphant male statuary. Nelson’s Column is the epitome of a phallic male monument and I felt that the square needed some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison’s statue could represent a new model of female heroism.”
Born in London in 1964, Quinn studied at Cambridge University, graduating in 1985. Recent solo shows include Sphinx at the Mary Boone Gallery and DHC/ART at the Fondation pour l’art contemporain, Montréal, Canada in 2007 and Evolution at White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London and at Gana Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea in 2008. His work has also been shown at Tate gallery, Sonsbeek ’93, Arnhem, Victoria and Albert Museum, Statements 7, the 50th Venice Biennale, Barbican and Haywood gallery amongst other major institutions.
Quinn is represented by White Cube in London and Mary Boone Gallery in New York. He currently lives and works in London.
