Dunphy is cleaning his attic and basement

June 27, 2018 7:11 AM

Damien Hirst works will go up for sale this fall Sotheby’s London will be offering Frank Dunphy’s personal collection of Damien Hirst works (as well as other artists’ items) this coming September.
posted by Yellow (11 comments total)

I forecast snark to follow on this thread. That's because there are more artists than hedge fund managers on Metafilter.
posted by kozad at 7:24 AM on June 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’m hoping for some snark. I like artists way more than hedge fund guys.
posted by Yellow at 7:25 AM on June 27, 2018

I plan on flying over to bid on the "Snark in a Bottle"
posted by sammyo at 7:37 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Physical Impossibility of Snark in the Mind of Someone Already Snarking
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:59 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hoping for snark eh? Nah, too easy. How about a couple examples of critical appreciation for Hirst's work from the late art critic Arthur Danto instead?
posted by gusottertrout at 8:14 AM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

OK I'll snark directly. Is there anything more boring than an artist where the primary story is how expensive his art is? It's kind of a shame, some of his works are beautiful. But every fucking story is about the price tag. Which I guess is part of his shtick and he's certainly gettin that money. But still, it's just boring.
posted by Nelson at 8:31 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

“All the time, I’m thinking I haven’t exploited Damien sufficiently enough.”

This is probably all you really need to know about either of them.
posted by chavenet at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2018

But every fucking story is about the price tag.

Is he writing the stories? Apologies if I'm ignorant of his mien.

I have two months to scare up a suitcase full of cash.
posted by rhizome at 8:48 AM on June 27, 2018

Hirst definitely uses the way his work is reported on to make some of his art, furthering the cycle of the money/art or art = money connection. His momento mori, the famous diamond encrusted skull, could hardly be seen as anything else. It both embraced the connection and mocked it by the same token, and, of course, infuriated many who already believed the art world is all just a scam.

I have mixed feelings on Hirst myself, but mixed doesn't equal thinking he's an imposter or it's all just a sham. More that his work, when it does find an appreciative audience, usually appeals most to those either deeply invested in the art world already, in both senses of "invested", or those who know or care very little about it and just like the look of what he creates, such as his The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living shark in a fish tank. The alienation the works create for many that can't see the works as either just something to look at and wonder over or as part of some larger conversation about art in the 20th/21st centuries helps further the limitations on how all modern art is viewed.

There is something a bit troubling about that for its lack of involvement with the broader culture. It isn't something Hirst originated, it's been happening for quite a while, but it exemplifies the isolated nature of much of modern art for being so self referential. Art about art can be exciting, but mostly in a very narrow context most people aren't going to have time for.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:08 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sounds like Frank’s done pumping and has decided to start dumping.
posted by egypturnash at 11:52 AM on June 27, 2018

Shiny, shiny objects for oligarchs as financialization takes over all human activity, including what we used to quaintly refer to as art criticism.

I see so much art now that seems to be understood as good only because of the high prices it fetches in the art world ecosystem.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:59 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]