EDUCATING DAMIEN*

About

During the academic year 1983-84, Glyn Thompson was teaching on the Foundation Course at Jacob Kramer College in Leeds. His students on the compulsory History of Art and drawing modules included Damien Hirst, who would later become one of the world’s most successful, controversial, wealthy and debated artists.

This exhibition opens up to the public for the first time Thompson’s fascinating personal archive of lecture notes and thousands of 35mm slides shown to Hirst and fellow students. This will be shown alongside a series of drawings made that year by members of Hirst’s cohort based on specimens in the collections of Leeds City Museum and Art Gallery, which Hirst fondly recalled in his interview with Nicholas Serota, published in the Tate Gallery catalogue of 2012. These form a unique insight into the art education of a major figure of the ‘Young British Artists’ generation.

Events

Thursday 8 January, 6pm 
The Hirstian Pact; Boho or Boohoo?

Join us for an evening with Glyn Thompson in this ‘old-school’ lecture where Thompson will ask whether Hirst is merely the personification of the bohemian stereotype, since he just happened to be in the right places at the right time, having first encountered the archetype of the post-romantic tortured genius Patrick Oliver at Jacob Kramer College.

This is a unique opportunity to hear from the highly engaging, witty and hugely knowledgeable Thompson who will make use of his lecture notes and 35mm slides that Damien Hirst’s cohort were exposed to during the 1983-4 academic year.

Free but booking through Eventbrite is required. Book here
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Glyn Thompson is a writer, educator, art historian and curator. He taught at Jacob Kramer College from 1971-1996. Thompson writes and publishes on Marcel Duchamp and Damien Hirst. This project is staged in partnership with PAGES and Leeds Art Gallery. A panel discussion about the project will accompany the project. Details to follow shortly.