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White Cube is one of the most prominent contemporary commercial art galleries in the world. It is based in Hoxton Square in the East End of London. It represents Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and many other internationally-recognised artists.
History
The White Cube is owned and run by the art dealer Jay Jopling (an ex-Etonian and son of a Conservative MP) who is married to artist Sam Taylor-Wood. It was first opened in a small, square room in May 1993 in Duke Street, St James's, a traditional part of the West End in London. In that location there was a gallery rule that an artist could only be exhibited once. The gallery achieved its reputation by being the first to give one person shows to many of the Young British Artists (YBAs), including Emin.
It moved to its present larger premises in April 2000. The 1920s building had previously been occupied by the small publishing company Gerald Duckworth & Co, and had once been a piano factory. In 2002 an extra two stories (750 m².) were added by hoisting a prefabricated unit on top of the existing structure.
The Hoxton/Shoreditch area had been popular with the Young British Artists (YBAs) since the 1990s, at which time it was a run-down area of light industry. More recently it has undergone extensive redevelopment with clubs, restaurants and media businesses. Hoxton Square is a prime site, home also to Jarvis Cocker, with a central area of grass and trees, which the vicinity is mostly lacking.
White Cube previews are open to the public and crowds fill the square on such occasions. Its publicly-accessible interior is a small reception area, which leads onto a 250 m². exhibition area downstairs, two storeys in height. Another smaller exhibition space upstairs normally shows a different artist. Offices and a conference room are on the upper floors. On some occasions exhibitions have been installed on the grass of the square, one example being Hirst's large sculpture (22 ft, 6.7 m) Charity, based on the old Spastic Society's model, which shows a girl in leg irons holding the collecting box.
Other artists shown at the gallery include Jake and Dinos Chapman, Nan Goldin, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gavin Turk, Gilbert and George, Jeff Wall, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Marcus Harvey, Mona Hatoum, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn, Neal Tait, Sophie Calle, Chuck Close, Nan Goldin and Ellsworth Kelly.
White Cube is also promoting "E-vent" for web-based work. Its address is 48 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB. Admission is free, Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm.
Criticism
In 1999, the Stuckists art group declared themselves "opposed to the sterility of the white wall gallery system". They ran their own gallery (with coloured walls) in an adjoining street, and on one occasion, dressed as clowns, they deposited a coffin marked "The Death of Conceptual Art" outside the White Cube's door. *
In 2003, Charles Saatchi launched an attack on the concept of the white wall gallery, calling it "antiseptic" and a "time warp ... dictated by museum fashion". *
Nick Cohen commented on the 2006 Gilbert and George show Sonofagod Pictures: Was Jesus Heterosexual? at White Cube, "Last week I went to the East End of London to witness the death of the avant-garde." *
External links
Art museums and galleries in London | Hackney | Contemporary art galleries
"White Cube"