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A personal view 3: Danny

Danny is a curator, artist and author. The art in his house feels nonchalant but focused, like Danny himself. He has been collecting objects for many years including contemporary art and was an early collector of Damien Hirst.

Blood: How did you start to think of yourself as a 'collector'?

Danny: I never did until Damien Hirst started saying I was his first collector. But through buying things one automatically becomes a collector.

Blood: True, but you don't have a 'collection' just through buying things. They all fit together somehow... What is the common thread in your collection?

Danny: I think the way it fits together is simply my taste, which is fairly eclectic. I am attracted to all sorts of things... objects... prints... photographs... paintings. Then I get sick of it and don't do it for a long time. It's a mood thing.

Blood: How would you describe this mood?

Danny: I had a gallery when I was 21 and so by force of dealing I became acquisitive.

Blood: Are your relationships with artists important to your collecting?

Danny: Yes, but now the artists I know are so expensive that I can't afford them. But I look out for things when I get a bit of cash flow.

Blood: What qualities attract you to a piece?

Danny: Originality is one thing. But I buy all sorts of stuff. I like James Ward - a curious English animal painter working in the same vein as Gericault and Delacroix. I have one of the largest collections of 19th century erotic photography.

Blood: What is it like living with the work?

Danny: I have the photos in boxes and look at them occasionally. I'd like to publish a book of them one day. I've just moved back into my London home from Morocco, so a lot of things are in storage at the moment, but they used to cover the walls. I do sell things occasionally, but I buy something at the same time.

Blood: So you started with Damien Hirst...

Danny: I only started buying Damien when I was in my thirties, I already had a collection of things. My first acquisition was a Courbet.

Blood: Do you still have it?

Danny: Yes. I will never sell it. It still hangs on my wall.

Blood: Do you think of your collection as a contemporary one?

Danny: I don't pay attention to those distinctions. It's what catches my eye. I never look for things.

Blood: How do you feel about your collection as a whole?

Danny: I'm not too conscious of it. This might sound a bit pompous but I can't understand people who only buy one kind of art. It seems very self-conscious. Art is many things. That's the point of it. I'm not interested in the business side of art. I buy things that affect my curiosity otherwise it becomes 'trophy' collecting. Sometimes I would like to get rid of everything, all the art I have bought.

Blood: There's still time.

Danny: Yes, but I'd probably start all over again.

Blood: Is there an artist you feel you missed out on first time round?

Danny: I missed buying people I liked, Matthew Barney, who I knew at the beginning, and all the young Brit Art people.

Blood: What makes you buy?

Danny: It's hard to quantify, a completely new language, originality.