http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/08/news/entracte.php
Entr'acte: Damien Hirst's 'ethical' art: a diamond skull for a mere $100 million By Alan Riding Published: June 8, 2007 LONDON: Presumably it was pure coincidence. Last Monday, the former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor went on trial in The Hague for war crimes in which diamond trafficking played a major role. Four days earlier, the British artist Damien Hirst unveiled a platinum human skull covered in 8,601 diamonds and offered it for sale for £50 million, or close to $100 million. But if coincidence, is it fair to make the link? Should every starry-eyed young couple looking for an engagement ring have to worry about how diamonds are mined in Africa? Need Hirst feel guilty that Taylor allegedly supplied weapons to gangs terrorizing Sierra Leone in the 1990s in exchange for diamonds? Hirst's London gallery, White Cube, thought it wise to address the issue, noting that the skull's diamonds "are all ethically sourced, each with written guarantees in compliance with United Nations resolutions." Bentley & Skinner, the Mayfair jewelers that actually made the object, added its own assurance that the diamonds were "conflict-free." So that's fine. The concept of "ethically sourced" diamonds - or oil or weapons or even imported T-shirts - may sound a tad far-fetched, but here it sufficed to turn London media attention away from human rights to the far more respectable subject of money, in this case to the fact that, if sold, Hirst's skull will be the most expensive new work of art ever made. Now that's the stuff of headlines. It is, of course, no secret that the art market has become drunk with money of late, with major auctions routinely notching up record prices for artists old and new. In fact, never before have contemporary artists, from London to Leipzig, from New York to Shanghai, been at the center of such speculative fever. But £50 million for a diamond skull that cost £12 million to make? Even Russian oligarchs and hedge fund billionaires might think twice. The work, by the way, is called, "For the Love of God." Indeed. Still, along with chutzpah, it shows that Hirst is a shining symbol of our times, a man who perhaps more than any artist since Andy Warhol has used marketing to turn his fertile imagination into an extraordinary business. And as the natural leader of the Young British Artists, or YBA's, who emerged here in the 1990s, he has paved the way for many others. He made his name by pickling sharks, cows, sheep and the like, but his real achievement was to break the power of London's traditional galleries. Initially sponsored by the dealer-collector Charles Saatchi, himself a former advertising magnate, Hirst soon became an art entrepreneur in his own right. And having created his brand, he found he could sell almost anything. Now 42, he still pickles animals in formaldehyde, but in the meantime he has sold spin paintings, enlarged anatomical figures, pharmaceutical products displayed in cupboards, butterfly collages and, in White Cube's current "Beyond Belief" show that includes the diamond skull, paintings of the birth of his son through Caesarean section and large oils of malignant tumors. Apart from their salability and the fact that many of these works are made by Hirst's studio (or his jewelers), what they have in common, White Cube tells us, is Hirst's exploration of "the fundamental themes of human existence - life, death, truth, love, immortality and art itself." Thus, "For the Love of God" is presented in the tradition of "memento mori" - those skulls placed in classical paintings to remind us of what lies ahead - and as an homage to the Aztecs (Hirst now spends some of every year in Mexico), who attached precious stones to skulls and even re-created entire skulls with crystal. In other words, Hirst's piece is packaged as a concept. It is also an object. Seen under a single spotlight in a darkened room of White Cube's Mayfair gallery, small diamonds cover the entire skull, including nostrils, while one mega-diamond, weighing 52.40 carats, sits on the fella's forehead. We are told he was a European who died sometime between 1720 and 1810 at the age of around 35. His skull - or rather its platinum cast - now sparkles like a strobe ball in a disco. Is it beautiful? Compared to what? Like the Crown Jewels, it is what it is: a highly skilled exercise in extravagance. Knowing its asking price adds to its wow factor: imagine opening a suitcase with a $100 million worth of bills. Wow! And talking (again) of money, White Cube says that three or four collectors have shown interest in acquiring the skull. But those who lack resources or security guards have not been forgotten: Hirst is offering limited editions of silk-screen prints of the skull for prices ranging between $2,000 and $20,000 (the most expensive 250 prints are sprinkled with diamond dust). Well, clearly museums that are reduced to selling postcards, T-shirts and coffee mugs of Renaissance masterpieces have something to learn. But, in fairness, Hirst is just playing the game. It is a game played by collectors and dealers at art fairs throughout the year; it is a game finessed as never before by Sotheby's and Christie's; it is a game in which, in the words of Nick Cohen, a rare British art critic to rubbish Hirst's publicity coup, "the price tag is the art." What happened to art that portrays beauty, art that carries a political, social or human message, art that is not gimmicky? Certainly it still exists, but all too often it is seemingly overlooked by a market obsessed by what's "in," what's trendy, what everyone is chasing. Will the bubble burst? If it does, of course, it will be no fault of the artists; it will be because stock markets take a dive and collectors retrench. But it may do art itself no harm. In fact, Cohen, for one, is looking forward to the day Hirst takes a fall. "Hirst isn't criticizing the excess, not even ironically," he wrote in London's Evening Standard, "but rolling in it and loving it. The sooner he goes out of fashion, the better." Previous Page 1 | 2 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
