An attendee — though she’s probably just a model — to Damien Hirst’s “Requiem” exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev makes a spin painting. (Photo courtesy Artforum.com via PinchukArtCentre)
The personal foundation of Damien Hirst’s friend and hunting buddy, Victor Pinchuk, is inviting the Davos elite to produce a spin painting with the formaldehyde man himself using the artist’s spin painting machines and, according to the Pinchuk Foundation press release, “specially delivered to Davos for this occasion.” OMFG, what a treat!
The release also has the following quote from Hirst:
I really like making them. And I really like the machine, and I really like the movement. The movement sort of implies life. It’s the way the atoms move inside our bodies, it’s the way the planet moves that we stand on. And the way all the other planets in space move around ours. Every time a painting’s finished, I’m desperate to do another one.
Wow, whoever thinks that is the most ridiculous explanation they’ve ever heard, please raise your hand.
We know Hirst & Pinchuk are quite close, so this shouldn’t be a huge surprise, but how close are they? Millions of dollars close, at last count.
The Art Newspaper reported in 2008 that the Ukrainian oligarch owned 25 Hirsts, the next year Bloomberg quoted Hirst that “Pinchuk owns ‘probably half’ of the skull paintings in Hirst’s … [2009] show at London’s Wallace Collection,” and Pinchuk did host an art star-studded solo show for the British artist at his personal museum.
My question is, what is Pinchuk going to do with vast Hirst inventory when he wakes up one day and realizes that people outside of the art world power elite who wine and dine together a little too much don’t think Hirst is actually a great artist? Oh right, this is all happening at Davos, which isn’t about reality anyway.
Enjoy your spin class!
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….You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round…
I always thought those spin paintings were a joke on collectors and the art world… now I know. They are.