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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare.

In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

Nonsensical

With just an 'E' in his Art A-level, Hirst was delighted to be admitted to an art school that did not seem to rate skill - his tutor at Goldsmiths College, Michael Craig-Martin, was a 'minimalist conceptualist' whose most notorious work is a half-full glass of water entitled An Oak Tree.
Hirst, who had a placement at a mortuary while a student, decided to make death his unique selling point. Now, many great artists have painted the dead and the dying, but Hirst's approach was more that of a butcher.

Saatchi offered Hirst a £50,000 commission to do whatever he liked and the result was the famous shark in formaldehyde in a giant glass cabinet (pictured), which he called The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living - a pretentious title that impressed the gullible.

Hirst followed up the shark by having a dead cow and calf split in two and exhibited in separate glass containers. He then diversified into dead sheep, and there was publicity beyond price when an exhibit featuring a rotting cow and bull was banned by New York public health officials.

When he moved on to spot paintings (rows of randomly coloured circles), Hirst candidly explained that he was useless at painting, so it was left to his assistants to produce them in their hundreds.

In thrall to the YBA, the British Council appointed Emin to represent the UK at a great Venice art fair. Incredibly, she has since been appointed professor of drawing in the Royal Academy, a distinguished institution founded in the 18th century to promote artistic excellence.

One of the tragedies of all this is that young people even now are being encouraged by the art establishment to believe that self-promotion and controversy matter more than talent and hard work, and real artists are being ignored or sidelined because they don't fit the conceptual template. But the tide is turning at last.

Patronising

In recent weeks even the BBC's arts editor has admitted that many curators secretly despise much conceptual work, and critics have begun tentatively to query if it hasn't been overrated.
People are challenging lofty and disdainful voices such as those of Serota and his colleagues and point out that they're peddling rubbish.

Ruth Dudley Edwards's Killing The Emperors, a satire on the world of conceptual art, has just been published by Allison and Busby.

VIDEO: A selection of Hirst works that have sold in the past...

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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

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Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare. In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

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1. What do the careers of artists like Ken Done and Damien Hirst tell us about the influence of critics, dealers, art advisers and private collectors?                                                                         Were Done’s and Hirst’s unfavourable reviews owing to the fact that they are ‘not good artists’ or because their work, with its strong market sensibility, challenges the various assumptions about artists and their careers? (Peter Anderson, ‘Ken Done’s image problem’, Art Monthly Australia, 1995, pp.4-6 )                                

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1. What do the careers of artists like Ken Done and Damien Hirst tell us about the influence of critics, dealers, art advisers and private collectors?                                                                         Were Done’s and Hirst’s unfavourable reviews owing to the fact that they are ‘not good artists’ or because their work, with its strong market sensibility, challenges the various assumptions about artists and their careers? (Peter Anderson, ‘Ken Done’s image problem’, Art Monthly Australia, 1995, pp.4-6 )                                

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239504/As-prices-Damien-Hirsts-works-plummet-pity-credulous-saps-spent-fortunes-tosh.html

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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare.

In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

Nonsensical

With just an 'E' in his Art A-level, Hirst was delighted to be admitted to an art school that did not seem to rate skill - his tutor at Goldsmiths College, Michael Craig-Martin, was a 'minimalist conceptualist' whose most notorious work is a half-full glass of water entitled An Oak Tree.
Hirst, who had a placement at a mortuary while a student, decided to make death his unique selling point. Now, many great artists have painted the dead and the dying, but Hirst's approach was more that of a butcher.

Saatchi offered Hirst a £50,000 commission to do whatever he liked and the result was the famous shark in formaldehyde in a giant glass cabinet (pictured), which he called The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living - a pretentious title that impressed the gullible.

Hirst followed up the shark by having a dead cow and calf split in two and exhibited in separate glass containers. He then diversified into dead sheep, and there was publicity beyond price when an exhibit featuring a rotting cow and bull was banned by New York public health officials.

When he moved on to spot paintings (rows of randomly coloured circles), Hirst candidly explained that he was useless at painting, so it was left to his assistants to produce them in their hundreds.

In thrall to the YBA, the British Council appointed Emin to represent the UK at a great Venice art fair. Incredibly, she has since been appointed professor of drawing in the Royal Academy, a distinguished institution founded in the 18th century to promote artistic excellence.

One of the tragedies of all this is that young people even now are being encouraged by the art establishment to believe that self-promotion and controversy matter more than talent and hard work, and real artists are being ignored or sidelined because they don't fit the conceptual template. But the tide is turning at last.

Patronising

In recent weeks even the BBC's arts editor has admitted that many curators secretly despise much conceptual work, and critics have begun tentatively to query if it hasn't been overrated.
People are challenging lofty and disdainful voices such as those of Serota and his colleagues and point out that they're peddling rubbish.

Ruth Dudley Edwards's Killing The Emperors, a satire on the world of conceptual art, has just been published by Allison and Busby.

VIDEO: A selection of Hirst works that have sold in the past...

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At last, the real shark is exposed: As prices for Damien Hirst's works plummet, pity the credulous saps who spent fortunes on his tosh

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Not everyone recognises that the artist emperor is naked, but in the art world there's a growing unease that his clothes might be looking a bit threadbare. In decades to come, people will look back and wonder why, in fashionable circles at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, rubbish such as this was displayed as art.

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2. Can artists influence their own career paths? How has Damien Hirst and Ken Done gone about managing and promoting their respective careers? 

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2. Can artists influence their own career paths? How has Damien Hirst and Ken Done gone about managing and promoting their respective careers? 

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3. How can a powerful group of individuals - artist, dealers, art advisers, private collectors and critics - influence Damien Hirst’s reputation, career and sale of his art?

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3. How can a powerful group of individuals - artist, dealers, art advisers, private collectors and critics - influence Damien Hirst’s reputation, career and sale of his art?

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4. Is it realistic to think critics can remain independent of the art market? And is it such a bad thing if the influence of the market spreads beyond advertising and into editorials and critical writing? (Lawrence Alloway)

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4. Is it realistic to think critics can remain independent of the art market? And is it such a bad thing if the influence of the market spreads beyond advertising and into editorials and critical writing? (Lawrence Alloway)

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5. What role has François Pinault and his private museums - Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice - played in rebuilding and repositioning Damien Hirst's reputation and value within the market? 

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5. What role has François Pinault and his private museums - Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice - played in rebuilding and repositioning Damien Hirst's reputation and value within the market? 

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Consider this within the context of the exhibition entitled “Treasures of the Wreck of the Unbelievable.”

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/16/damien-hirst-treasures-from-the-wreck-of-the-unbelievable-review-venice

http://www.artnews.com/2017/05/08/a-disastrous-damien-hirst-show-in-venice/

http://www.artnews.com/2017/04/21/one-mans-trash-is-damien-hirsts-treasure-in-venice-the-artist-offers-his-grandest-work-yet/

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Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable

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Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable Damien Hirst Until 3 December 2017 'Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable'.

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Damien Hirst scales back business activities to focus on making art

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Damien Hirst scales back business activities to focus on making art

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The Art Newspaper ANNY SHAW

1st October 2018

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Damien Hirst, the artist who famously built his global brand with an art production line, sales and marketing team, administrative sector and finance and investment division, is streamlining his business to "focus on his art", according to a spokeswoman for his company, Science (UK) Ltd.

As part of the restructuring, the British artist has laid off 50 members of staff, mainly working in finance and IT, although there have also been some losses in his London and Gloucester studios. Directors James Cameron, Jude Kelly and Sylvia Park all left the firm last year. The spokeswoman declined to comment on current staffing figures.

Investments are instead being made in a new studio on Beak Street in Soho, central London, which Hirst bought for around £40m, according to Companies House. The new complex is expected to open next year after extensive renovations and is set to become Hirst's flagship studio in the UK capital, comparable in size to his workshop in Southwark, south London.

The artist's recent return to painting is well-documented, but the company's restructuring will not mean an end to pickled sharks and cows cleaved in two. Hirst's spokeswoman say he will continue to create large conceptual sculptures and installations for collectors; he recently redesigned the bar at the Palms Casino Resort, complete with trisected shark, as part of a $620m renovation by the art-loving brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitt.

Put succinctly, the artist is keen to "spend more time in the studio", she says. "These changes are not driven by a need to reduce costs but by his desire to cut the corporate elements of the business to get back to a simpler way of working."

To this end, Hirst is due to shut the Quay restaurant in Ilfracombe, Devon next month; some of the redundancies are a result of this closure. According to sources, he is refurbishing several properties on the seafront which he will either rent or sell.

However, Verity, Hirst's imposing bronze statue showing a cross-section of a pregnant woman installed near the restaurant, will stay put; the 25-tonne statue is on long-term loan to north Devon council.

Hirst shut his Other Criteria gallery in Ilfracombe last year, but the publishing company continues to produce books and catalogues. The £25m Newport Street Gallery, which Hirst opened in Vauxhall in 2015, ostensibly to showcase his Murder Me collection, will also continue to operate as normal.

Hirst's decision to go back to basics comes exactly ten years after his infamous Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction at Sotheby's London on 15 September 2008, which netted £111.4m over two days. The sale unfolded just as the financial markets collapsed amid the subprime mortgage scandal, marking the end of an era of decadence for the contemporary art market.

A recent report on Artnet found that 19 works by Hirst from the Sotheby's auction have since been resold, 17 of which have depreciated in value, with a collective loss of almost £2.2m. Collectors' wallets are likely to have been dented further by fees and storage costs. According to a mockumentary released by Hirst on Netflix in January, the artist ploughed the profits from the sale into his most ambitious exhibition to date, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, which closed in Venice in December 2017, racking up a reported £250m in sales.

As for the state of his market a decade later, Hirst recently took to Instagram to address his critics. He recalls how he was playing snooker with world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan during the Sotheby's sale while someone was reading out the hammer prices. "I couldn't even process it-it was going crazy. I kept saying 'they've got it wrong', I couldn't make sense of it because the prices were so high," Hirst says.

Straight away, Hirst says he recognised "something really wasn't right". He says: "After it was such a success it would have been easy to think I was some kind of great artist and everything I made would sell for huge sums... [But] it was the brink of the crash and there was still so much money flying around from all the hedge fund guys, and when the market stumbled after the auction, people forget, but that was things actually getting back to the real market."

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Damien Hirst scales back business activities to focus on making art

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Damien Hirst, the artist who famously built his global brand with an art production line, sales and marketing team, administrative sector and finance and investment division, is streamlining his business to "focus on his art", according to a spokeswoman for his company, Science (UK) Ltd.

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Newport Street Gallery | About Damien Hirst's art collection

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Newport Street Gallery presents exhibitions of work from Damien Hirst's art collection. Located in Vauxhall, south London. Free admission.