Hirst's work seems pretty shallow, as if that's his provocative shtick, which runs the risk of only being shallow, and not provocative. Banksy's work has a poetry to it, which makes it much more interesting. However, he does have a shtick, and I think stunts like this one risk going over the line, as there isn't anything actually poetic about it. It's more like a MTV punk'd episode than something thoughtful. Personally, I'm tired of art that has to score high on the provocative axis to be successful.
I actually like some early Hirst that was about death and decay. Then he became artist du jour and got lost up his own ass. Ultimately I feel visual art is irrelevant. It's been replaced by TV and movies. Nowadays any time I want to say something I think in terms of words. I also draw lots of dogs and cats. I like drawing dogs and cats
If I recall correctly, art auctions are like any other auction - you pay about a 10% buyer's premium and with taxes and all the rest, your overhead is about 19-20%. If you can't sell a $500k Hirst for $600k, you've lost money.The Times notes that the loss for the seller will have been worse due to buyer's premium, seller's fees and storage costs.
You're supposed to. That's the point. Thee and me are the unthinking proletariat, our sense of aesthetics too crude and unrefined to recognize the genius of the Saatchi-anointed. I'll bet you hate Jeff Koons, too - and Tracy Emin and Gonzalez-torres. That just proves how uncivilized you are. I think you'd dig the Thompson book. It does a good job of explaining the value proposition of a head made out of frozen blood. (Fuckin' NYT is insisting I give a shit about Cindy Sherman this morning and I mean I can't even)
Hey. I have a degree that was supposed to help me appreciate Hirst and Koons. I just don't. I like some pretty out there stuff but not a guy who can't authenticate spin art or a guy who thought a billboard of himself was art. I met a lot of people who are artists who don't buy their brand of bullshit. It's like a joke being played on collectors. Now that I think about it that makes this Banksy even better because he literally did it
Did you go to Eton? no? Was your degree taught in a 300-year-old building where your grandfather also learned? No? Then it's not supposed to help you appreciate Hirst and Koons. It's supposed to help you appreciate Kandinsky and Magritte. You know. Stuff you can buy prints of at Ikea. Banksy is like the Wyland of contemporary art. He makes stuff that the general public can absorb while getting the wealthy to pay for it. That way they can still feel a little street. They're not out of touch, it's all their friends who are out of touch. And see, if they have a Banksy and a Warhol and a Hirst they're real people, not like that bitch Veronica and that ghastly Mark Quinn she hung in her study after she made sure everyone knew how much she paid for it.
Got me there. I went to state school My general reaction to a Banksy is, "Neat." I could see a lot of his stuff on a shirt from Hot Topic. He does make a good point about commercial art though The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.