Ashley Bickerton gets retrospective break from Damien Hirst

Ashley Bickerton is to get his first major retrospective in the UK thanks to his friend and long-time collector Damien Hirst. The show of work by the Bali-based US artist, which is due to open in April at Hirsts Newport Street Gallery in south London, follows numerous disappointments with other institutions. Bickerton tells us that five planned museum retrospectives have fallen through. I am too eccentric; I didnt pass muster with the boards, he says. The beautiful thing about Newport Street Ga