Dan Holdsworth, 'Untitled (Autopia)', 1998

Crash, a homage to J.G. Ballard (it takes its name from his 1973 novel), runs at the Gagosian Gallery until 1 April. Work by 52 artists starts in the lobby with a 3.5-metre-wide photograph of a Boeing 747's undercarriage - part of Adam McEwen's Honda Teen Facial. There are paintings with people in them, not all recent: a Delvaux of nudes in a blue room; a Hopper of a woman in an empty theatre; Witness, a smashed face by Jenny Saville; and John Currin's Rotterdam - pornography as Norman Rockwell might have painted it. There are installations, such as Damien Hirst's table of surgical instruments below photographs of a smashed eye and smashed limbs. There are DVD projections and sculpture.

LRB 11 March 2010 | PDF Download