Hirst Painting Only Worth Signature – artmarketblog.com

Hirst Painting Only Worth Signature – artmarketblog.com

I hate to have to write about Damien Hirst again because, quite frankly, I have had more than enough of Damien Hirst to last me a lifetime. The Sotheby’s Hirst sale is, however, an important event in the art market regardless of what one things of Hirst and therefore there is a need for opinions to be expressed.

Hirst was recently quotes as saying “Someone in a gallery in New York told me the other day that my signature is worth $350” which is something I completely and utterly disagree with. Hirst’s signature is not worth $350, it is worth 385,250 pounds – the price paid for the four spot painting
AZOCARMINE B. I mean, come on, Hirst has absolutely no involvement in the creation of most of his spot paintings (physical of mental) with the hired fabricators, according to an Economist article, choosing which colour the spots are to be and then painting the spots which are SOMETIMES inspected and approved by Hirst. Take away Hirst’s signature (the only part of the painting by Hirst) from a spot work not painted by him and you have a virtually worthless spotted canvas. Taking this into consideration, the value of AZOCARMINE B has to reflect the value of Hirst’s signature since that is the only part of the work by him. Honestly, how much would you pay for AZOCARMINE B if it had no connection to Hirst and was sold as the work of one of the unknown people who actually painted the spots?

The reason that I chose AZOCARMINE B to illustrate this point is because in opinion it has the least intrinsic value of all the works sold at the auction and would have the lowest value if the association with Hirst was removed. Having done enough criticising of Hirst’s work for one post I would now like to make it clear that I do actually like some of Hirst’s work, namely some of the formaldehyde works and some of the pill works which I believe reflect talent, imagination and originality. Even though I do like some of Hirst’s works I would still not recommend that people purchase one due to the approach that Hirst has taken to the production of his work. Had Hirst not chosen to take the approach that he has to the production of his work I might have actually be writing a recommendation instead of a warning.

image: “The Dream” by Damien Hirst

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications