Enough has been written, and more will pour, on the extended Blair exit. Damien Hirst on the other hand has not announced a farewell, but his truly bizarre diamond skull unveiled yesterday to the art world must surely be a nail in the coffin of his parallel era. Since Sensation in 1998, a year into Blair's reign, Hirst has grabbed the public imagination and the art buyer's wallet contents like no other artist. Sceptical, I finally saw his work at the Saatchi gallery in County Hall and was unexpectedly blown away by his sliced cow - otherwise known as Some Comfort Gained From The Acceptance Of The Inherent Lies In Everything - I couldn't tear myself away from it. But this Tiffany special he has created has got to be one of the more crass statements made by an artist. Turning a human skull into a disco ball and charging £50million for it is either a horrendously apposite comment on humanity, greed, the worth and worthlessness of human life (the price of everything and the value of nothing), or Hirst's two-fingered diamond wave to the rest of us.
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Blair and Hirst and crass farewells
Enough has been written, and more will pour, on the extended Blair exit. Damien Hirst on the other hand has not announced a farewell, but his truly bizarre diamond skull unveiled yesterday to the art world must surely be a nail in the coffin of his parallel era. Since Sensation in 1998, a year into Blair's reign, Hirst has grabbed the public imagination and the art buyer's wallet contents like no other artist. Sceptical, I finally saw his work at the Saatchi gallery in County Hall and was unexpectedly blown away by his sliced cow - otherwise known as Some Comfort Gained From The Acceptance Of The Inherent Lies In Everything - I couldn't tear myself away from it. But this Tiffany special he has created has got to be one of the more crass statements made by an artist. Turning a human skull into a disco ball and charging £50million for it is either a horrendously apposite comment on humanity, greed, the worth and worthlessness of human life (the price of everything and the value of nothing), or Hirst's two-fingered diamond wave to the rest of us.
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6 comments:
I think the best thing Hirst ever did was direct Blur's Country House video...
Am not a fan of the sliced and formaldehyded creatures
I'll go (with generosity of spirit), for the 'apposite comment on humanity, greed, worth and worthlessness of human life' etc. arguement.
I would though like to hold it very much - feel it's rough texture. Is it heavy or light? Look at those teeth. There's about as much chance of that happening as gazing in awe at the next incumbent of No 10....
I quite agree.
Wish I'd thought of it ......
The true story will come with the silly bugger who buys that thing!
He has a house in our Village so I wonder where he borrowed the skull from? (note to myself.. shovel, glue and sequins)
I saw some Damian Hirst drawings in the new 'MIMA' in Middlesbrough. Beforehand I read something which said that he really could draw, which showed people he was a proper artist. As it turned out on seeing the drawings myself, he can't and he isn't. he's brilliant at what he does, which is to relieve people with more cash than sensibilty of huge amounts of money, for which I salute him, and I suppose that makes him an artist in the sense that the characters in 'Hustle' are artists, buit he does nothing that inspires more than a momments thought or reflection. designer, perhaps, publicist and promoter, certainly, artist: my arse
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