Triumph of the Stupid: Damien Hirst is the World's Most Expensive Artist



(image via arthrob)

You know how we feel about Damien Hirst. Hustler, scammer, punk. He's no Picasso (Is Picasso even Picasso?) Now, we are really starting to question the institution of Democratic-Capitalism, or, at the very least the Contemporary Art tastes of oily Russian billionaires and hedge fund fucks. From via Yahoo News:

"Britain's Damien Hirst has been crowned the world's most expensive living artist at auction, lifting a title held for years by America's Jasper Johns.

"It was the high point of a frenetic week of London art auctions that saw records tumbling like ninepins and which is likely to get close to $1 billion when it ends later on Friday.

"Hirst took the title on Thursday when Sotheby's sold his 'Lullaby Spring' pill cabinet for 9.6 million pounds ($19.1 million).

"Johns has held the title off and on since the mid-1980s, swapping in November 189 with Willem de Kooning who held it until his death in 1997."

From BlackBook in 2004:

"Irvine Welsh: I was interested in one of the things you said one time -- that you want people to react to art the way that they react to medicine.

"Damien Hirst: Well, I think art gets boring pretty fast, and to give it relevance today is pretty difficult; you've got to catch people out visually. So I think you're always looking for that, and I thought that pills were a brilliant little form, better than any minimalist artist. They're all designed to make you buy them.

"Irvine Welsh: This is the thing; there's a design concept for everything, whereas before it was really just functional.

"Damien Hirst: I mean, pills do come out of flowers, plants, things from the ground, and it makes you feel good, you know, to just have a pill to feel beauty."


Please kill me. (Yahoo News)