Douglas Gordon (-)
A ARTIST
No question about rt. thrs was the year of
Douglas Oordon. After a frustrating decade of wartrng for him to exhibit rn Scotland. we were treated
to two Douglas Gordon exhibitions in Edinburgh alone.
as well as a full-length feature frlm in Crnemas.
Yet. deSprte the fact that hrs face was difficult to avoid rn the press for much of the year. rt seems that many people strll don't understand Just how highly- respected the 40-year-old artist really rs. One measure of his success rs a strange. but interesting website called artfactsnet. which calculates the value of artists according to how many exhibitions they have, and now much their work has sold for. Gordon rs currently number 23 — higher than Salvador Dali. and up among the grants oi modern art like Jasper Johns. Alberto Giacomettr and WasSrly Kandinsky. Gordon rs easily the highest-ranked UK artist on the list (the next is David Hockney at number :30. then Damien Hrrst at number 00 and Tacrta Dean at M -- and that's rt for the Brits. and. what's more. he has been up in the top 40 since 1999. This rs no flash-rn-the-pan rise to lame. but a sustarned and serious career for an artist who -— make no mistake rs going down in history as one of the greats of the early 21 st century.
He heads our list. however. on the strength of what he has done in 2006 alone. Douglas Gordon's year began with a massive show. What you want me to say . . lam already dead. at the Fondamon Juan Mrro rn Barcelona. The pace cranked up as he exhibited at the late ‘lrrennral rn l ondon. and took part in grOLrp exhibitions in Pans. Santa Monica. Wolfsburg and Ldrnburgh in the lr'rurtmarket's show. [)ada’s Boys.
All this was nothing compared to what was to come. for Gordon. 2000 had moved into top gear by the
CONTRIBUTORS
time hrs maror mid-career retrospective. Tune/roe. opened in June at the Museum of Modern Art rn New York. It was the crowning moment rn hrs career to
date. and although rt was described in a front page reVrew in the New York Times as ‘uneven'. rt was als: sard by the same revrewer to be 'drearnrly beautiful". 'rngenrously rnacabre' and ‘vrsually grrpprng'. Meanwhile. Gordon was putting the finishing
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touches on hrs frlrn. Ada/re: a I) Is! Century Portrait. made in partnership with fellow artist Philippe Parreno. and with Darius Khondrr rDe/rcatessen. Se/e/ir as director of photography. Intended as a prece of popular cinema. the frlrn focused 1.7 cameras on footballing legend 7rnedrne /rdane for the duratron of one of his games for Real Madrid. lhrs was football rn angry close-up form. It premiered at Cannes. where Observer frlrn critic Jason Solomons described rt as 'tne greatest f.lm about football ever made. and one of the great films about sport'. Soon afterwards. the subject of the frlrn was to rocket to notoriety durrng the frnai game of the World Cup 9006. It's true that the movie only played to modest audrences in the UK.
but it was undoubtedly another step towards mainstream recognition for Detrglas Gordon. A future in directing films wrth major international distribution. is new a distinct possibility.
By the time his Edinburgh exhibitions opened at the end of October at lnverlerth House and the RSA Building in Edinburgh. there were some Journalists who were no longer sure what more could be said about the artist. Yet. strll Gordon contrnued to surprrse. announcing a collaboration with Ian Rankin rn which the ldrnburghbased author wrote a short story based around thentes close to both men's hearts. And rarely has an exhrhrtron received such Widespread acclarm from reviewers. Never mind if the gallery-goers of Fdrnburgh have been slow on the uptake: Douglas Gordon rs the real deal. Even after all thrs frenzied activity. he strll had the mental space left to open an exhibition of new work at hrs commercial gallery in New York rrt's open untrl the end of Decernberl.
This year. Douglas Gordon got the exhibitions and the rtxxxyrrtron he has long desen'ed. f-or what he has achieved. we simply can't praise hrrn highly enough. .NBl
Kelly Apter, Nick Barley, Sian Bevan, Suzanne Black. Steve Cramer. Paul Dale. Brian Donaldson, Jules Graham. Kirstin Innes, Malcolm Jack. Doug Johnstone, Alexander Kennedy, Carol Main, Henry Northmore, Allan Radcliffe, Donald Reid, Mark Robertson, Elspeth Rushbrook
‘.-'. [‘et: .r’lltlfi .1 Ja!‘ L’l‘rfl' THE LIST 35