Douglas Gordon

Self-portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe, 1996

Douglas Gordon (born 20 September, 1966) is a Scottish artist.

Biography

Gordon was born in Glasgow and studied art first there (at the Glasgow School of Art) from 1984-1988 and later at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, from 1988-1990. His first solo show was in 1986.

Gordon won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 2005 he put together an exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin called 'The Vanity of Allegory'. In 2006 there was an exhibition of his at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, called "Timeline".^[1] In 2008, he won the Roswitha Haftmann prize.^[2]

In 2006 Douglas Gordon Superhumanatural opened at the National Galleries of Scotland complex in Edinburgh. This was Gordon's first major solo exhibition in Scotland since he presented his now celebrated work, 24 Hour Psycho, at Tramway in Glasgow in 1993. One of his latest works was on show - a cinematic portrait of the footballer Zidane. First shown at both Cannes and Edinburgh Film Festivals in 2006, a gallery version of the work was recently purchased by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Artwork

Much of Gordon's work is seen as being about memory and uses repetition in various forms. He uses material from the public realm and also creates performance-based videos. His work often overturns traditional uses of video by playing with time elements and employing multiple monitors.^[3]

In one early work, Meaning and Location (1990), a passage from the Gospel of Luke is given with a comma in different places, thus subtly changing the meaning of the sentence. List of Names (1990-present) is a list of every person Gordon has ever met and can remember. One version of this is applied onto the wall of a stairwell in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

One of his best-known art works is 24 Hour Psycho (1993) which slows down Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho so that it lasts twenty four hours.^[4] Feature Film (1999) is a projection of Gordon's own film of James Conlon conducting Bernard Herrmann's score to Vertigo, thus drawing attention to the film score and the emotional responses it creates in the viewer. In one installation, this was placed at the top of a tall building, referencing one of the film's main plot points.

Gordon also made a film about Zinedine Zidane, Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle, an idea first seen in a film by Hellmuth Costard, who, in 1970, made a film about George Best titled Football as Never Before.

Gordon has also made photographs, often in series with relatively minor variations between each individual piece.

External links

• Works in the National Galleries of Scotland
• Gagosian Gallery: Douglas Gordon
• Lisson Gallery: Douglas Gordon
• Turner Prize 1996: Douglas Gordon
• Douglas Gordon at MoMA (06/2006)
• Another Review of what have I done (Contemporary)
• Interview (04/2006)
• Interview (12/2002)
• Gordon at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin
• Review of "what you want me to say..." exhibition in Barcelona
• Douglas Gordon in the Video Data Bank

Notes

1. ^ "New" Museum of Modern (Contemporary) Art by Rebecca Lane in Fillip
2. ^ Levent Ozler: Roswitha Haftmann Prize Goes to Video Artist Douglas Gordon, Dexinger, January 20th, 2008.
3. ^ Monsters Inc, The Guardian, November 5th, 2002.
4. ^ Susan Stone: Museum Hosts '24 Hour Psycho' -- Literally, "All Things Considered", February 29th, 2004.