Artist Angus Fairhurst Dead at 41
According to the Guardian:
Angus Fairhurst, one of the original Young British Artists who blazed such a trail through the 1990s, has taken his own life in a remote part of Scotland, it was announced today. He was 41.
Fairhurst was one of the 16 Goldsmiths College students who took part in the 1988 exhibition Freeze, mainly organised by second-year Damien Hirst. It was the seminal event for the YBAs, and launched numerous careers.
Hirst and Fairhurst remained friends and exhibited, together with Sarah Lucas, at Tate Britain in 2004 in a show called In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Hirst said today: “He was a great artist and a great friend, he always supported me in fair weather and foul. He shone like the moon and as an artist he had just the right amount of slightly-round-the-bend. I loved him.”
Lucas said: “Angus was a lovely man. Funny and kind. Very much loved by all his friends. Very much loved by me.”His latest solo exhibition at Sadie Coles gallery in London closed only on Friday. In a joint statement Coles and Pauline Daly, the gallery’s other director, said: “Angus was funny, ridiculously charming, a wonderful cook and great host, a crazy dancer, a radical gardener, a nature lover, and an intensely intelligent artist. He was a dear friend to numerous other artists and had a huge number of close friends from all walks of life. We will all miss his love and kindness.”Fairhurst may not have reached the level of fame and fortune that other YBAs achieved, but he was highly regarded.
