Ralph Rugoff
Ralph Rugoff today revealed to Your Gallery daily magazine that Antony Gormley's next major exhibition will be hosted by the Hayward Gallery, a major coup for the new director. In May 2007 the entire gallery will be devoted to new works by Gormley and there will also be a significant off-site project involving the installation of 32 figures in positions visible from the Hayward (look out for one perching on the Houses of Parliament).
Other exciting plans for the future of the gallery include a spot of what Rugoff considers to be essential DIY. The concrete South Bank has always had its detractors, most notably Prince Charles who famously declared it 'a carbunkle', but the 49-year-old New Yorker likes it so much that he wants to make more of the Hayward's architecture. When he arrived at the gallery Rugoff was appalled to discover that because of a shortage of funds a couple of huge windows on the upper level had been boarded over and a potentially stunning skylight blocked up many years ago. First on Rugoff's agenda is to uncover these three light sources so that visitors can actually see where they are and enjoy the fantastic views of the river.
The location of the Hayward on the South Bank is one of its advantages and yet nothing much has been made of its position in the past. With the redevlopment of the entire South Bank, which is currently underway, Rugoff hopes to make more use of the immediate surroundings of the gallery, as well as generate greater interaction between the South Bank's different venues. He is already commissioning artists to create flags for the huge flagpole at Jubilee Gardens, a stone's throw from both the Hayward and the Houses of Parliament, and hopes that the positioning of the flagpole will encourage artists - and visitors - to ponder the issues of patriotism and nationalism. The first flag in the series is being made by Mark Wallinger, and will probably be unfurled on Guy Fawkes Night this November (each artist can decide the date on which their flag is first flown).
Other new projects include a space for smaller touring shows (the Hayward is already responsible for an extensive touring programme but most of these exhibitions perversely never make it to London) and work by younger, emerging artists. He also plans to start a new commission for artists to create a mural visible from the exterior of the gallery, which will hopefully draw visitors into the gallery.
The exhibition programme from the autumn onwards includes 'How to Improve the World British Art 1946 - 2006', an enormous show surveying British art over the last 60 years, which opens in September 2006. This will be accompanied by a programme of talks and events (Martin Creed, Bridget Riley and Jeremy Deller are among the many artists taking part). In autumn 2007 comes the first show to be curated by Rugoff. 'Painting of Modern Life' will trace the extraordinary relationship between painting and photography from Gerhard Richter and Richard Artschwager to the present.
This is exactly the kind of exhibition that Rugoff wants the Hayward to do more of - shows curated by the gallery's curators which 'go in deep'. After all, the Hayward has a much bigger space than London's other main contemporary art venues, not including Tate Modern, and has the room to put on comprehensive surveys, whether they be themed exhibitions or dedicated to a single artist's work (a recent example of this is the Hayward's Dan Flavin exhibition last year which made the artist's show at the Serpentine in 2001 look positively boutique).
With a new director of exhibitions at the Serpentine, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and the ICA and the Whitechapel being more ambitious in terms of the exhibitions they are mounting, Rugoff is determined to give the Hayward a distinctive programme, building on its long tradition of in-depth exhibitions with an international focus and relevance. The Hayward's first ever show in July 1968 was devoted to Matisse; Rugoff has secured the gallery another major blockbuster for next spring when Antony Gormley looks set to dominate the South Bank, the perfect venue for an artist whose life has been spent making beautiful objects out of concrete.
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