Comments on: Episode 105: Mucho Stuffo

By: Mark Staff Brandl

Mark Staff Brandl — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:54:41 +0000

I agree with Ballsy and Tony on Damien — BUT have heard complimentary stuff about him from London artists — how he is very “pro-artist,” helped other artists, keeps his business in his own hands, not allowing galleries or curators to lead him around — and how he herded that whole bunch of snipy artists into the yBa thing, often against their own desires to stay quiet and kiss curator ass. Even dragged Saatchi to the show that broke him into that world by taking a taxi to Saatchi’s apartment and basically kidnapping him into going to see the work. While a lot of his art bugs me, especially the paintings-by-broke-art-students (doesn’t every Neo-Conceptualist do that now?) — while it bugs me, his hutzpah and sense of artist-comaraderie reminds me of Tony’s and Shark’s and BAS’s and had a great effect.

By: tony fitzpatrick

tony fitzpatrick — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:31:36 +0000

Hudgens– I would agree– I think maybe Hirst, as an artist needs to find his better self– I am one of those ,however; who likes the skull– I think it is good art despite being robbed of it’s definition because Hirst chose to engage the art market rather than the imagination.

By: Balzac

Balzac — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:50:35 +0000

C’mon BAS get it together! Sexist jerks.

By: Julie Rodrigues Widholm

Julie Rodrigues Widholm — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:24:58 +0000

one small correction to give credit to a talented female artist where it’s due– Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, who was mentioned in the discussion about Skulptur Munster, is a she not a he.

By: Hudgens

Hudgens — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:20:47 +0000

Would you both agree that at that level of the game you would prefer/wish to see someone make a artistic dramatic contribution and not always the most strategic well thought out safe move?

By: Balzac

Balzac — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:20:21 +0000

Agreed, the 50% thing is a blight. I too appreciate testicular fortitude.

By: tony fitzpatrick

tony fitzpatrick — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:05:14 +0000

I hear you …. I just like the way Hirst has never been any art-dealer’s bitch — Instead of art dealers having 50 per-cent of Damien Hirst– Damien Hirst has 70 per-cent of a bunch of art-dealers– I like that — at every point in his career, he has walked into the lion’s den and spit in his mouth. I like guts– there is a huge shortage of it in the art-world.

By: Balzac

Balzac — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:45:51 +0000

I think Hirst is important, he move the overall discourse forward, but I think he is, in many ways, a one trick pony, and over-the-top for the sake of over-the-top (see Koon’s movie with Cicciolina) is tired and sad.

By: tony fitzpatrick

tony fitzpatrick — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:31:07 +0000

Balzac– I understand your comtempt for Hirst; but actually he is better than you think– he is kind of half genius , half P.T. Barnum– THIS particular sale may tell you more about the art-market than it tells you about Damien Hirst. The skull was for sale for 2 months– Hirst probably thought some hedge-fund geek would but it immediately…. and that didn’t happen — for the 60 days this thing was for sale; it was the most talked about art object on the planet — but oddly– nobody BOUGHT it. Now Hirst is no fool — when Saatchi proceeded to dump his collection of Hirst some years back ; Hirst, wisely, decided to buy most of it back rather than have a sudden glut of it in the blue-chip market– which would have undoubtedly driven his prices down.
Though this move of Hirst participating in the purchase of the skull may seem desperate– it is probably just Hirst reading the dip in the art-market– when the hedge-fund geeks didn’t fall all over themselves to buy this thing — everybody got nervous and engineered a sale, which is actually not a bad strategy– Hirst has protected his market every step of his career.
Do I think it’s a good thing? …. No — it’s cynical, manipulative, and exactly the way business is done in the artworld.
That said; I think Hirst is an interesting artist — the skull itself seems to be a ‘momento mori’ for a consumerist society– and , like Koons 20 years ago, he seems to be giving the art-world exactly what it deserves.

By: Balzac

Balzac — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:09:43 +0000

Agreed that artists do do this from time to time, but Damien Hirst!!! Come now. Like that hack jackass doesn’t receive enough attention. He may be the most over rated artist in history. Blech. Poop on him!