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This man paints doors for a living.

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Eddie Mair | 07:18 UK time, Thursday, 12 June 2008

nigela.jpgHe's Gary Hume, one of the original "Young British Artists" in Damien Hirst's famous Freeze show in 1988, and on PM, with Nigel Wrench, this evening. Nigel writes:

"For twenty years now, Mr Hume has been painting glossy versions of the same set of hospital doors (at St Bart's in London, which oddly enough, featured in my report on a Brazilian theatre company last week).

A mini-retrospective of these works opens on Saturday at Modern Art Oxford. The catalogue says, "The paintings of Gary Hume challenge us not to be seduced". You may smile, but the shiny surfaces are oddly alluring.

Above is Black Door With Sash (2006). Mr Hume says he imagines it like a general on parade.

And below is More ****ing Values (1991 - 2008), (censorship mine, by the way, it'll be a bleep if it features on the radio). nigelb.jpg

The door pictures sell for six-figure sums, in case you're thinking of getting one for the front room. They were installing them in the marvellous soaring space that is Modern Art Oxford when I was there yesterday.

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The woman in the white t-shirt on the left is Suzanne Cotter, director of the gallery and a Turner Prize judge this year. Gary Hume is on the left at the back, helping to hold up Brown Door (1988).

And finally:

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Something I took at first to be an installation, but turned out simply to be a lift they're using to place the works on the walls. You just never know with contemporary art, do you?"

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