This month Patrick McCaughey unveiled the first major acquisition at the Yale Center for British Art since his arrival on campus last spring to serve as the museum's director.
The work, titled "In and Out of Love," was created in 1991 by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst, whom Mr. McCaughey describes as "both a cheerleader and advocate for his own generation."
Although he is only 30 years old, Mr. Hirst's artistic endeavors have already won him notoriety. He has bisected cows and exhibited eight-foot ashtrays, and his winning of the prestigious Turner Prize in London in 1995 sparked intense controversy. His first solo show in New York, held in May of 1996, drew sell-out crowds, and elevated the artist to the status of a rock star.
Shortly before the New York exhibition, the British Art Center acquired "In and Out of Love." The large, multi-part early work consists of eight five-foot-square paintings with butterflies attached to them, four white boxes with circular holes, and an industrial-type table with four ashtrays filled with cigarette butts. By mixing the impersonal with intensely personal references, the work seeks to create an environment that blends the lyrical and the disgusting, according to Mr. McCaughey.
"Damien Hirst has created a work of art that deliberately invites and multiplies interpretation, stimulates and repels feeling in the observer. Art challenges life," he says.
In bringing Mr. Hirst's work to Yale, says Mr. McCaughey, he is attempting to expand the British Art Center's collection by creating an exciting atmosphere, bringing with it change and vitality.
The Yale Center for British Art is located at 1080 Chapel St. It is open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. For further information, call 432-2800, or visit the center's site on the World Wide Web at http://www.yale.edu/ycba.