Drawings by British artist damien hirst to be first shown in Russia

Russian audience will for the first time see the drawings by well-known modern British artist Damien Hirst. His exhibition "From Cradle to the Grave" will begin on October 30 and last for a month in the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

A speaker for the British General Consulate in St. Petersburg said that it was in many respects due to the activity of Hirst that London has been named a new world capital of modern arts.

About 100 drawings, which initially were not meant for exhibitions since they were merely sketches made in copy-book sheets and hotel forms, sometimes as presents to friends, and were often drafts for paintings and sculptures.

Hirst's drawings are a kind of his personal diary, which covers the whole period of his creative work and discloses the secret of his arts, the speaker added.

The only sculptural installation, which gave the name to the exposition, will also be exhibited along with drawings in the Marble Palace.

All the works of the exhibition were not displayed earlier, they belong to Hirst's collection and are kept in the collections of his friends and colleagues.

The exhibition is the result of long-term co-operation between the State Russian Museum and the British Council. Among the previous joint projects mention should be made of The Changing World exhibition devoted to British sculpture from the collection of the British Council (1994) and the exhibition of the latest British Electric Earth video-arts (2003).