Hirst Will Stop Making Spin, Butterfly Paintings, Drug Cabinets By Scott Reyburn
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Damien Hirst, Britain's richest artist, says he will stop making the spin and butterfly paintings that are among his top-selling works.
Hirst's trademark spot paintings will still appear, though production of these and formaldehyde works will be reduced, the artist said in a video interview on Sotheby's Web site. The newly released conversation with Tim Marlow, White Cube's director of exhibitions, was filmed in July by Sotheby's. The auction house is promoting its two-day sale of new pieces by Hirst, titled ``Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,'' to be held in London on Sept. 15 and 16.
The 223-lot auction of works entered directly by the artist from his studio may net him more than 65 million pounds ($121.7 million), said Sotheby's, which has its main salerooms in New York.
``I feel I've started series and I have to end them all,'' Hirst told Marlow as he wandered among the works for sale. ``I set off to do an endless series of spot paintings, but then I got bored. I'm not that sort of person, really. I was going to use this exhibition to end everything. I was going to end the formaldehyde works, the spin paintings, the butterflies and the spot paintings.
``But with the spot paintings, I've realized I'm doing 1 1/2 millimeter dots and one painting 7 foot-square will take me 20 years. So I figure I can do that for the rest of my life,'' said Hirst. ``The spots are going to stay, I'm going to carry on doing those, the butterflies are going to stop, I'm going to stop the spins, and with the formaldehydes, there are just a few works I want to make.''
Bestselling Lines
When contacted by e-mail, Jude Tyrrell, director of Hirst's company Science Ltd., said the artist would be curtailing production of some of his bestselling lines.
``Damien does not want to comment further on what he says in the interview, but we can confirm that 2008 will be the last year that Damien produces butterfly paintings, spin paintings or medicine cabinets,'' said Tyrrell in an e-mail. She would not say how many spot, spin and butterfly paintings Hirst had produced since coming to prominence in the early 1990s.
As was the case with Andy Warhol's ``Factory,'' most of Hirst's works are made by studio assistants.
``Someone told me there are 800 spot paintings,'' said the London dealer Robert Sandelson in a phone interview. ``But I'm sure there are more than that.''
In the summer of 2006, Sandelson's Cork Street gallery hosted a selling exhibition of Hirst works acquired through secondary sources. Recently, dealers have been concerned about overproduction of some paintings, said Sandelson.
`Shaky' Spots
``The market for spins and spots is under pressure,'' he said. ``I got out of the Hirst market in mid-2007. It was beginning to look shaky.''
In June 2007, Hirst's triangular spot painting ``Hydrocodone'' was bought for 412,000 pounds with fees at Christie's International, London. In May 2008 it reappeared at Sotheby's, New York, where it sold for $589,000, said the saleroom result tracker Artnet.
``This is a reassuring message from Damien,'' said London dealer Ivor Braka, who confirmed he was the buyer of a $3.3 million Hirst butterfly canvas and a $2.6 million spot painting at Sotheby's ``Red'' charity auction in New York in February. Both prices include 10 percent auction-house fees.
``Some people were beginning to talk about when this level of production was going to stop,'' said Braka in a phone interview. ``We now know these works are finite.''
Sotheby's Hirst sale will include 16 spot paintings, 20 spin canvases, eight spin ``cloths'' and 73 paintings with butterflies. A further four works combine the spin and butterfly formats, said the auction house. The 8-foot, 10-inch-diameter butterfly painting, ``The Rose Window, Durham Cathedral,'' is expected to fetch up to 900,000 pounds, according to the catalog.
