Tuesday 9 September 2008

Damien Hirst - The End?

Good lord, it's my 200th post on this blog!
I've been thinking about Damien Hirst. It's not fun. Does his forthcoming mega-auction at Sothebys mean the end of the gallery? bellows Waldemar Januszczak here. Almost certainly not - but might it, with a bit of luck, mean the end of Damien Hirst? He looked decidedly nervous and unconvinced by his own schtick on TV last night. As well he might be. The Sothebys show illustrates with brutal clarity the decline of a once mildly interesting artist into a mass producer of kitsch, who happily talks of his various 'production lines'. And of money, with which he is obsessed to an almost Daliesque degree. Hirst grumbles about 'the Van Gogh thing' - the way the dealers get all the money, the artists none- which comes well from the seigneur of 30 or 40 (he's not sure) grand properties. He is determined to get yet more money by making 'the primary market more expensive', i.e. getting most money with the first sale - a tacit admission that his work has no lasting or increasing value. Unlike, say, art...
Anyway, here's hoping the Sothebys sale bombs and Hirst is left with egg (or formaldehyde and bits of shark) all over his face.
Me, I'm off to Bedford. Call it a lonely impulse of delight. I shall report back.

11 comments:

  1. "once mildly interesting"

    I think you're being far to generous, Nige.

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  2. I speak from experience when I say that visiting Bedford is unlikely to lighten your mood, Nige. But have a good day anyway.

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  3. Well Nige, one pops out of the office for a while, returns to the non sceptered isle and what does one find ? Bryans blog with a page three element, sedition, flood, pestilence, Kevin departed and Damien forming a splinter group. The king of scrapheap challenge art go's it alone. If you think that his stuff is lousy, and who doesn't, pay a visit to the Bonn museum of modern Kraut art, we spent a day there recently because of it's Richter collection. over two hundred thousand square feet of visual piss taking.
    Incidentally, who's the Yankee burd wearing safety specs standing next to the very old guy?

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  4. Ah Malty - welcome back! Thought you might have been flooded out, clinging to a treetop somewhere in sodden Northumbria...

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  5. Malty, good to see you. I feared you knew someone killed in that Chamonix slide and were attending funerals. Much better to hear you were at boring art exhibits!

    Bedford the town, or Dukes of Bedford's mansion? The first time I ever visited England, way back in the summer of '81 (yes, I even saw Charles playing polo a couple of days before his marriage), we went there. I have never gotten over that mansion and its treasures. Is it still open to the public? Do say 'yes.' And I wonder if I would find it as striking now. What is the Nige assessment?

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  6. Hello Susan, no funerals, spent some time poking about Gutenbergs effects in Maintz, amazing how much and how little is known about him. Talking to one of juniors friends who had just returned from Detroit, it appears that the place is rapidly deteriorating, with a lot of middle management now being made redundant and even affecting Dearborn, is that right?

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  7. Yes, Malty -- lots of big car companies going under. Ford posted its worst returns ever this last year. But this is an ongoing thing -- did you ever see Michael Moore's first hit documentary? It was about the beginning of the carmaking crash and its effect on the company town of Flint, Michigan.

    I drive a Ford minivan, but it is a crap car compared to its Japanese/German equivalents. However, it at least was cheap and I really don't care what kind of car I drive. Once upon a time when I was young I had a convertible Triumph (TR-4) and that was enough for me. (By the way, it handled terribly -- you had to be *strong* to steer it, as it was manual -- and I could see the ground through the floorboards as water had completely rusted it out. It also had a Russian tractor engine, which may be what gave it such a throaty sound. On the other hand, it was candy-apple red and I loved its lines.) I think you only love a car like that once.

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  8. The good old TR4, at about the same time Triumphs sister company, Rover were producing their best cars ever. I can see you now, white headscarf, Cary Grant sunglasses, parking beside the Fontana di Trevi, leaping onto the back of a Lambretta.
    My first car was a 1946 MGTC, No heater, had to be a contortionist to perform legovers.

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  9. The house is Woburn, Susan - and the town is a dump. Woburn very fine but not one of my favourites - I find too much classicism oppressive (in the English country house context), prefer something more red brick and rambling...

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  10. Woburn Abbey! Now I remember. Thank you, Nigel. Name some historic homes you prefer, if you would. Son and I thinking of crossing the big water and visiting either England or Ireland on his spring break next March.

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  11. Please report back as I am still looking forward to hearing from you soon! Moreover, you may always find a resume writer certification to fix your pretty old resume!

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