Above, "Anthrafuchsone", by Damien Hirst, sold at Christie's for $562,196.00.
The Hirst Spot paintings are dull, dull, dull, but that's not really the point. It's not about making something interesting to look at, it's a money-laundering scheme. I recommend the documentary by Ben Lewis, The Great Contemporary Art Bubble.
In the NYTimes this morning, Damien Hirst's Spots Return to Fill 11 Galleries.
There were two parts of the article that piqued my interest:
... white cardboard models of all 11 Gagosian galleries were laid out on tables, with miniature reproductions of each canvas hanging on the models’ walls.
... [Hirst's] father, who was a car salesman in Leeds, in northern England, ... painted the door of their house with blue spots.
They should put the door and the cardboard models in one of the galleries. I'd rather look at them than another spot painting any day.
Indeed...but I also think the dullness is a point as well. This elephantine bore is a blow struck for non art ...it's a restful exhibit for those who don't like looking at art, who may actually resent it, but like the social and money part.
ReplyDeleteIt's putting art in its "proper" place as background , while seeming to praise it. It's a type of performance art if you will. One could just as well have 11 rooms of canvases that say "widget" on each one as people hob nob at the opening ....oops..I don't want to give them ideas
Oh look! Google is recognizing my existence again . Let joy be unconfined
Terrfic on topic post
ReplyDeleteMuseum Blockbuster-Show Sponsorships Go Begging While Billionaires Throw Down Hundreds of Millions on Trendy Schlock
http://art-unwashed.blogspot.com/2011/12/museum-blockbuster-show-sponsorships-go.html
Anne
Thanks -- I'll provide a true link. It's such an interesting blog, I linked to it on the side!
ReplyDeleteMuseum Blockbuster-Show Sponsorships go Begging While Billionaires Throw Down Hundreds of Millions on Trendy Schlock
I've been thinking about those spot paintings -- one of the things that makes them so boring is that once you've seen one, there's no reason to look at another. Yet Hirst has painted, or, more accurately, hired people to paint, hundreds of these things! And why would anyone go to a gallery to look at a dozen of them?
ReplyDeleteThanks -- I'll provide a true link. It's such an interesting blog, I linked to it on the side!
ReplyDeleteIt's a great blog. I just stumbled over it recently
....Yet Hirst has painted, or, more accurately, hired people to paint, hundreds of these things
this is what really frosts my cookies
HIRES PEOPLE?? and people pay alot for what is at best, a print? How can they say the painting even by this guy? How is this diffrent than the "staving artist" sales in hotels ? Actually those have far more moral standing!
And why would anyone go to a gallery to look at a dozen of them?
You know I don't think they do look at them...and that makes me think that is the big attraction we are missing! Hobnobbing amongst themselves the point and not the art. They reward the " artist" who understands that with fame.
In the NYTimes this morning, Damien Hirst's Spots Return to Fill 11 Galleries.
ReplyDeleteWhen I 1st read this headline I naively thought this meant 11 rooms somewhere was filled with this hokum...but no! It's 11 galleries WORDL WIDE. 11 Places where other artists can't be shown because of this stunt. But it gets better! Mr Hirst knows well the abuse loving streak a mile wide within his public and he issued a challenge! Who can visit all the 11 galleries around the world to look at his spots painted by others ?...and people took up the laughing all the way to the bank challenge...they are called spot checkers! You cannot make this shit up! The more he insults them, they more they love it.