Who makes the artist's work – and does it matter?

Associated media

'The Fabricated Object'

29 November 2012–18 January 2013, Sumarria Lunn Gallery

Linking to a forthcoming Royal Academy Schools symposium ‘To Make or Not to Make’ on 11 January 2013, with curators, artists, academics and journalists taking part, Sumarria Lunn Gallery, London, explores ‘The Fabricated Object’ (until 18 January 2012); an exhibition of works by 12 artists including Mike Kelley, Angela de la Cruz, and Meekyoung Shin, Michael Petry, Gavin Turk and Joseph Havel.

The exhibition builds on the accompanying book, by Michael Petry, The Art of Not Making: The New Artist/Artisan Relationship (Thames & Hudson, 2012), which explores the debate on the outsourcing of artists’ works to assistants. Artist David Hockney, at the start to his RA exhibition this summer, made the point that ‘all the works here were made by the artist himself, personally’. By contrast, the artist Damien Hirst has stated that he employed assistants for his spot paintings because ‘he couldn’t be arsed doing it’. Sumarria Lunn’s stimulating display of works, such as Mona Hartoum’s Natura Morta, 2009 , an antique cabinet filled with shelves of Murano glass, and Richard Wilson’s maquettes of Shelf Stack, 2010, questions who makes the artist’s work, and does it matter?

The Fabricated Object

Sumarria Lunn Gallery
36 South Molton Lane
London W1K 5AB

Open: Tuesday–Friday 11a.m.–6p.m.; Saturday 12 noon­–5p.m.