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Freeze was the title of an art exhibition organised by Damien Hirst and other students from Goldsmiths College. The show took place in July 1988 in an empty London Port Authority building at Surrey Docks in London's Docklands and was sponsored by the London Docklands Development Corporation and Olympia and York. Although often described as a warehouse the building housing the exhibition was actually an administration block.
The show is now seen as the defining event for the group of artists later to be identified as the Young British Artists (yBas), even though several members of the yBas went to different art colleges and didn't exhibit at Freeze and many of the original exhibitors are no longer celebrated and two young artists actually turned down the chance to be in the exhibition. The exhibition was orginally conceived as a group effort but during the preparation Hirst who was still only in his second year at College and had more time on his hands emerged as main organiser. Hirst and his collaborators conciously imitated the look of Charles Saatchi's first gallery in St John's Wood that had opened a few years earlier and Saatchi was an early visitor to the show where he was first introduced to Damien Hirst. Saatchi, who was already looking to aquire contemporary art from promising, unknown artists and purchased a piece by Matt Collishaw direct from the exhibition. Goldsmiths' lecturer Michael Craig-Martin used his influence in the London art world to get Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota to visit the exhibition.bought several of the works from the show,
The 16 students who did exhibit at Freeze were
The catalogue for Freeze had surprisingly high production values for a student exhibition being designed by Tony Arefin and included an essay by the art critic, Ian Jeffrey. The title of the show came from the catalogue's description of Mat Collishaw's macro photograph Bullet Hole which showed a bullet striking a human head - 'dedicated to a moment of impact, a preserved now, a freeze-frame'. The catalogue is now a collectors item.
A group photo of the exhibitors outside the show is often reprinted but is not a complete record as Bulloch and Landy are not in the picture.
Following the show many of the artists secured dealers. The success inspired a second exhibition several months later 'Freeze 2' featuring some artists from the first exhibition and some new faces from other London Art Schools but this was not as influential.
There was one contemporary review of the exhibition by Sacha Craddock. The BBC filmed the exhibition and interviewed some contributors but did screen the footage at the time but it has been used in progrsmmes since.
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