The Fun One Hundred, 2001

Peter Davies Biography

A brilliant observation of some of the main movers and shakers in the art world (up until 2001 when the piece was made), 'The Fun One Hundred' is a vibrant and excellently crafted 29-colour screenprint based one of the ‘text paintings’ that Peter Davies became known for after they featured in Charles Saatchi’s celebrated ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1997. Playful and humorous, this piece illustrates the artist’s attempt to understand art history and contemporary art as he lists well-known figures from Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso to more recent names - some his own contemporaries such as Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst - and comments on each one with his take on what makes these artists ‘fun’.

“David Hockney: pool attendant”, references the well-known series of swimming pool paintings Hockney made whilst living in California during the 1960s, and “Sol Le Witt: interior decorator”, refers to the geometric wall drawings the American artist was best known for. 'The Fun One Hundred ' is a breath of fresh air amongst highbrow art world opinions that put artists on pedestals as Davies brings them down to a user-friendly level and talks about art as if it were just another commodity. We are all human after all, although as Davies has clarified, some of us are more ‘fun’ than others.

A Goldsmiths graduate, Peter Davies was born in Edinburgh 1970. He shot to fame when he was included in Saatchi's controversial 'Sensations' exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1997. Since then he has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and The Saatchi Gallery, and having previously been a Gagosian artist, he is currently represented in London by The Approach. Davies won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2002 and his work is held in the Tate collection. He lives and works in London.