Damien Hirst burns his own art after selling NFTs
Damien Hirst has begun burning hundreds of his own artworks after selling a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The artist told buyers who bought pieces from his latest collection to choose either the physical artwork or the NFT representing it.
Those who chose the NFTs were told their corresponding physical piece would be destroyed.
4 comments:
'he's 'arvin' a larf? Innee?
A totally non fungibal larf.
All the way to the bank.
I guess this makes a radical statement about art, its value, and transience. There's a tradition of this sort of thing. A few years ago a couple of artists raised and burnt a million quid as a kind of performative gesture. And some others (maybe Jake and Dinos Chapman?) bought some drawings by Goya and defaced them.
The trouble is, these weak excuses for good ideas only shock because they destroy something of value. Hirst merely looks as if he has got bored with producing unoriginal and low-grade prints that don't sell, and is trying to get in the news again by disposing of them in public.
And art is certainly mirroring life, because that's exactly what he is doing. It's so boring, I found myself musing about that sliding glass canopy over the fire. Clearly a posh bit of kit, and it seems to have some kind of dampeners to stop it closing quickly, like a modern kitchen cupboard. Where are they, though, and how are they heat-proofed?
I suppose, (and I'm a painter myself), that this is the ultimate expression of art as concept. What so many pundits have missed for at least 150 years, is that there is a component to art appreciation which is to do with admiration of the conscious exposition of human depiction of a real world scene. The critics in the 19th century who thought that representational art would be rendered redundant by the camera, missed the point entirely. So the practice of art migrated to the conceptual, which in my opinion was largely a failure and a dead end.
Doonhamer - yes, that's the path artistic inspiration - the path to the bank.
Sam - yes they are weak excuses for good ideas. Media stunts more than art, or media stunts as art. The wood-burners seem to be super cool but impractical - I can see them being a real pain to maintain in that pristine condition.
Tammly - I agree, the conceptual is largely a failure and a dead end. Something known or knowable has to be depicted.
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