Marc Quinn
Cast his own head in nine pints of his own frozen blood, and put Alison Lapper on the fourth plinth.
Marc Quinn was born in London in 1964, read history and art history at Cambridge, and came to attention with the Young British Artists. Self, first made in 1991, is a cast of his head in ten pints of his own frozen blood, kept in a refrigerated case and remade every five years — a portrait that would collapse if the power failed. Alison Lapper Pregnant, a fifteen-tonne marble of a pregnant artist born without arms, occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square from 2005. Other works include the frozen flower pieces, the gold Kate Moss sculptures and the painted iris canvases.
The materials are the point and they are also the difficulty: blood, ice, bread and living plants are works that require infrastructure rather than a wall, and a valuation has to account for what maintaining the piece involves. Most sculptures exist in small numbered editions, some in several materials and sizes, and the edition and material together identify the work. The bronzes and marbles behave conventionally; the refrigerated and organic works do not. Certificates and studio documentation are essential. There is also a substantial editioned print output.
If you own a work by Marc Quinn
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.