Damien Hirst plans to launch a public gallery in south London, which will display his personal art collection, in 2014.
Hirst said the development, in Newport Street, Vauxhall, would contain six galleries and a cafe, adding: “It’s my Saatchi gallery, basically . . . a place to show my collection of contemporary art. It feels bad having it all in crates. It’s basically Francis Bacon and beyond.”
The gallery will house around 2,000 pieces including works by Hirst, Banksy and US artist Jeff Koons.
The gallery, which is designed by architects Caruso St John, will occupy the whole of Newport Street and incorporates the conversion of a terrace of three listed buildings flanked by two new buildings.
Hirst’s gallery follows London’s Saatchi Gallery, which opened in 1985 by art collector Charles Saatchi to display his own collection to the public.
Tate Modern’s Hirst retrospective will run from 4 April to 9 September and one of Hirst’s most famous pieces -the £50m diamond-encrusted skull entitled For the Love of God, will be on display in the gallery’s Turbine Hall from 4 April to 24 June.
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