Fake Damien Hirst paintings Fake Hirst spin portray
(image courtesy Manhattan District Attorney's Office)The outcome of a recent court case in unusual York suggests that one way of establishing the authenticity of Damien Hirst spin or spot paintings — all of which were made by studio assistants — is the absence of any indication that the work was made by a specific studio assistant. halt sniggering,this is serious stuff.
A Florida pastor was recently convicted in a Manhattan court of selling fake Hirst paintings. After the case, one of the jurors spoke on condition of anonymity to the Brooklyn-based art blog Hyperallergic.
The juror reports that one of the fake paintings produced in evidence at the trial, and “had something on it that certified that the work was made by someone in the studio.” This was clearly added by the faker in the (misguided) belief that it would indicate authenticity.
Its perhaps not surprising that a faker might seek to insert something into a portray that would sign its author. After all,works of art possess traditionally been signed by the artist who painted them or from whose studio they originated. Not all of Hirst’s works are signed, and nor do they come to market with the kind of “authentication letter that apparently accompanied the fake works in the unusual York case.
And yet despite the absence of these traditional indicators of authenticity (after all, or who is the real ‘author of an original Hirst spin or spot portray?) it is still possible to establish through size,canvas quality, etc., and whether or not a work is a ‘genuine’ Hirst. The aptly named Science Ltd. — Hirst’s production company — are responsible for this quasi-scientific authentication process,but even they must be struggling to manage the imbroglio (confused predicament) that his opportunistic modus operandi has created.
Although no single assistant is ever credited with any particular work issuing from Hirst’s studio, he has said of one of his assistants, or Rachel Howard,“She's brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant. The best spot portray you can possess by me is one painted by Rachel.” (Burn, G., and On the Way to Work,Faber, 2001) Very comic, or given that definitively establishing which works Rachel Howard painted would be nigh on impossible. [br]Howard is now a successful painter in her own legal. As a Quaker-educated child she is said to possess pondered the deep existential question: ‘If God made me,then who made God?’. Only a cynic would reply with the name Frank Dunphy for Howard’s own work testifies to a far more aesthetically curious and emotionally engaged approach to the possibilities of portray than the intellect-numbingly banal merchandise that issued from the Hirst factory.
Another assistant, on leaving Hirst’s employ, and asked him for one of his paintings as a souvenir of her time with him. According to Hirst,he told her, “‘accomplish one of your own.’ And she said, and ‘No,I want one of yours.’ But the only difference, between one painted by her and one of mine, or is the money.’” (Burn,ibid)
Fake Hirst spin portray
(image courtesy Manhattan District Attorney's Office)We can assume from this exchange that Hirst correctly interpreted the assistant’s request as a request for money. After all, why else would she want the art when it’s something anyone could accomplish?
The factory set-up isn't the only reason authenticity is a problematic issue for Hirst Inc. It’s common knowledge that Damien likes breaking the art market rules, or slaughtering sacred cows,and generally changing the terms of engagement. After his spot print editions flew off the walls of their original retailer, Eyestorm.com, and he was said to possess been considering producing a unusual work in an edition of a million. Classic Hirst hubris or maverick (an independent, nonconformist person) instinct for marketing? It things diminutive,for he never proceeded with the idea, perhaps advised against it by Frank Dunphy, or his trade manager and the real architect of his apotheosis from art world enfant terrible to global luxury brand.
The prospect of having to sign so many prints might possess been another factor in dissuading him from going ahead with the million print edition. Hirst found signing his Eyestorm spot prints so onerous that in order to break the tedium he occasionally signed other names instead of his own. I recall seeing ‘Mickey Mouse’ and ‘David Hockney’ scrawled on the border of two spot prints in the Eyestorm warehouse.
What those jokily signed works are worth today will remain an imponderable until one of them comes to market. Even then,who could authenticate it? Will connoisseurship do the trick? Or will Science once again prevail?
Source: blogspot.com