Althouse: "I’m totally amazed that my art is selling while banks are falling."

September 18, 2008

"I’m totally amazed that my art is selling while banks are falling."

"I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies than banks — seems like a better world today to me."

£111 million for Damien Hirst.

14 comments:

ricpic said...: Pickle the creep.; 9/18/08, 1:25 PM
MPorcius said...: Nice, it's a better world when he is doing well and other people are in trouble. Wouldn't it be an even better world if he, and the bankers, were all doing well?; 9/18/08, 1:29 PM
George M. Spencer said...: Let's all remember Howard Taft's 1908 campaign slogan: "Smile, smile, smile."

It's one hundred years later, and he's gone.; 9/18/08, 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...: No surprise here. People buy gold and art in times like these...; 9/18/08, 1:38 PM
Masterasia said...: Well the economic fundamentals are strong.; 9/18/08, 1:39 PM
chickelit said...: Why do so many artist have look like
Dieter ?; 9/18/08, 1:39 PM
Tibore said...: "I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies than banks — seems like a better world today to me."

Say what??

Let's see... hundreds of millions of people use large percentages of their income for the purchase of an item that they will live in and will affect and perhaps even define their life experience, and this is managed by millions of people in a market where billions of dollars flow regularly, perhaps even monthly.

Vs.

A market where a individuals or small groups invest large amounts representing small portions of their income into something they perch somewhere to look at. And this is managed by a few thousand people in a market where at best, millions of dollars flow annually.

Yeah... that's equivalent. Either this dips*** aspirated the "some" in that sentence, or he's got a severe case of perspective distorion. When one of his pieces failing to sell generates sympathetic bankrupcies of dealers and galleries, and forces a government bailout, maybe then he can get a big head about his relevance in the world. But not until then.; 9/18/08, 1:43 PM
Chennaul said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/18/08, 1:45 PM
Christy said...: He had an exhibit at the Lever House in NYC this past year. Did you see it? That one was of sheep and a shark in formaldehyde. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the very nasty shark hadn't been the iconoclast hero of the work and I hadn't just gotten off the subway with the nastiest smelling human on the planet. At that moment I was embracing the very bourgeois value of cleanliness.; 9/18/08, 1:48 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: If Alpha had a brain he would say:
The nerve of those filthy capitalists! They profit off of the misery of the victims of the housing crisis to lavish their ill gotten gains on art.; 9/18/08, 1:58 PM
Godot said...: "I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies than banks — seems like a better world today to me."

Yes. Automobiles and houses would be a thing of the past. Instead we'd all snuggle together in bright, cozy faerie-rings and wait for the first frost to fall.; 9/18/08, 2:13 PM
knox said...: "...and by 'butterflies' I mean "in my pocket!"; 9/18/08, 2:42 PM
Jeremy said...: Presumably he'll promptly turn around and buy 111 pounds worth of art from other artists, no?; 9/18/08, 3:28 PM
Joe said...: I'm totally amazed that his art is selling, ever.; 9/18/08, 6:38 PM