Damien Hirst (and not Damian Hirst like I often see) is both loved and despised. Loved by some because he supposedly “revolutionized” art history with his shinny diamond skull, his rotting sharks immersed in formaldehyde, and by being one of the YBA’s main protagonists; hated by others because he is also famous for using an army of assistants to paint simple and meaningless dots on his behalf, and because he tricked the art market world by selling artworks freshly made from his workshop directly at auction without passing through the gallery circuit first.
Hirst orchestrated this dramatic sale with Sotheby’s on the day Lehman Brothers announced bankruptcy, how symbolic! Some whisper that 80% of these artworks failed to sell… I personally don’t have any figures to display but it is sure that the more artworks by an artist circulate, the lower the value gets.
Hirst orchestrated this dramatic sale with Sotheby’s on the day Lehman Brothers announced bankruptcy, how symbolic! Some whisper that 80% of these artworks failed to sell… I personally don’t have any figures to display but it is sure that the more artworks by an artist circulate, the lower the value gets.
The artist / businessman / clown is now honored by London’s Tate Modern with a blockbuster exhibition perfectly scheduled for the Olympics. This show, which is likely to attract a wide audience (no doubt it will, given the long queue at the private view this week), displays almost everything he’s produced in the last 20 years.
I wonder how he managed to convince the prestigious Tate Modern to organize such a "retrospective". Would it be a joke? Another joke at least is the gallery he plans to open in South London in 2014. What will it display? Damien Hirst works of course.
