January 2009

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Two articles in yesterday’s press neatly demonstrated for me the two polar forces that characterise the art world. The first was a piece in The Telegraph by Richard Dorment highlighting the current show at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles about the Society of Dilettanti which contrasted with discussion in The Independent of Damien Hirst’s much debated September Sotheby’s auction in which the artist is staging the first single-artist sale consigned by the artist himself.

Hirst’s antics have got the art world and media a flutter. By dispensing with the dealers and art galleries that represent him (Jay Joplin at White Cube and Larry Gagosian of New York), Hirst has done away with the usual protocol which arguably protects art galleries from the reach of superpower auction houses, and has come under fire for staging the most audacious money-spinning move known in art market history. Estimates of Hirst’s value vary between £100-£500m (he spent £16m on a Francis Bacon self-portrait last year), set for a healthy boost when the 223 lots come under the hammer on 15-16 September. It remains to be seen just how much Hirst gains from the sale, entitled ‘Beautiful Inside My Head’, that has as its centrepiece The Golden Calf (a formaldehyde special), estimated at £8-£10m, and for far lesser prices the trademark mass produced spots (under £100,000) and the butterflies for a tidy million. He’s hardly an artist starving in his garret, but by cutting out the middleman he is again, as with his £50m diamond encrusted skull, making art about economics in his usual shock tactic, sensational way. It’s not without risk – flooding the market with a mass sale may not garner the demand and prices coaxed by dealers for select works – but does it really justify the hype of ‘make or break’ for both the artist and the market? Is the bubble about to burst? Whatever the outcome, I doubt Hirst’s status, both financial and creative, will be much threatened; the idea for the auction and exhibition was apparently that of Sotheby’s Oliver Barker, carefully evaluated before agreed to by Hirst who has somewhat swept aside the drama simply saying: ‘Auction is a very democratic way to sell’.

Far removed from the strong-arm tactics of the art market was Richard Dorment’s overview of the Society of Dilettanti, a dining society founded in 1734 by a group of young British aristocrats who had all made the Grand Tour of Italy. These days, the society comprises an international group of scholars, museum curators and directors, collectors, philanthropists and dealers – an exclusive group that celebrates art. I confess to not having heard of the society, but its humourously elite and deliciously erudite nature is hard to resist. Only 60 members are permitted, nominated by existing dilettanti, and initiated in a candlelit ceremony with members dressed in long red robes, meeting through a mutual appreciation of art. At the society’s dinners, its members toast ‘seria ludo’: ‘to take serious matters in a lighthearted spirit’ – all of which seems rather a long way away from the media attention given to Hirst's current ploy.

‘Grecian Taste and Roman Spirit’ is at the J. Paul Getty Villa, Los Angeles, until 27 October.

‘Damien Hirst: Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ is at Sotheby’s, London, 15-16 September. The preview exhibition opens in Sotheby’s on 5 September.

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