Damien Hirst busca redefinir el arte mundial

Hirst preparando su subasta. Dentro del tanque de formol hay un "unicornio".

El próximo lunes 15 de septiembre habrá una subasta histórica en Sotheby´s, en Londres. Será la subasta de un artista vivo, algo muy raro, y será de obra que no ha pasado por museos o galerías, algo aún más raro. Será una subasta de Damien Hirst, el artista contemporáneo más famoso del mundo, y espera vender en esa noche más de 100 millones de dólares; ningun otro artista ha ganado nunca tanto en tan poco tiempo... The Economist explica un poco el contexto:

"The past 25 years have seen more than 100 major new museums built around the world, each intent on acquiring, on average, 2,000 pieces, says Don Thomson, author of “The $12m Stuffed Shark”, a new book about the economics of contemporary art. With fewer Old Masters or Impressionist paintings coming on to the market, many of these institutions have focused on buying dramatic contemporary work to make their mark. The number of wealthy collectors has also multiplied 20 times, many of them for the same reasons focusing on the only sector where supply is expanding: contemporary art. Everyone who can afford it wants an iconic work, which explains the constantly rising records..."

La revista Time le dedicó su portada. Comenta sobre la subasta:

"Within the art world, the announcement of Hirst's Sotheby's sale did not really come as a surprise. The last few years have seen a phenomenal increase in auction prices for contemporary art. Many of the buyers come from Russia, Asia and the Middle East, where a new class of billionaire collectors has emerged. It was none other than the royal family of Qatar that briefly made Hirst the most expensive living artist at auction last year by paying $19.2 million for Lullaby Spring, one of his medicine-cabinet pieces. Artists, however, don't ordinarily get a dime from auction sales of their work. The money goes to the sellers and the auction house. But where is the rule that an artist can't sell his own work at auction? And it was always likely that Hirst would be the first artist to do that..."

Hirst es ya una referencia del arte mundial, y lo que ocurra el lunes, sin duda no será menor, para bien y para mal.