THE world’s leading contemporary artists have donated works to be auctioned in aid of the new space at the Serpentine Gallery. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery will open in 2012 to coincide with the London Olympics.
The sale by Sotheby’s on June 30, 2011 will feature 46 works. Artists who donated include John Currin, Gilbert & George, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Chris Ofili, Richard Prince, Paula Rego and Cindy Sherman. There is work by Ron Arad, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Phyllida Barlow, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Glenn Brown, Anthony Caro, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Fischli & Weiss, Yang Fudong, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, N.S. Harsha, Susan Hefuna, M.F. Husain, Jitish Kallat, Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly, Bharti Kher, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Maria Lassnig, Annie Leibovitz, Shirin Neshat Gabriel Orozco, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Do-Ho Suh, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread.
The innovative arts venue will be housed in the listed building formerly known as The Magazine in Kensington Gardens. The building will be fully renovated by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid to create a new destination for contemporary culture.
UPDATE: THE sale brought in £4,545,675 more than double the low estimate of £2.2 million. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery will open in 2012 in Kensington Gardens. John Currin’s Edwardian was the top lot. It made £713,250.