Monday 7 September 2009

Yet Another ‘Can’t They Both Lose?’ Incident…

How much is a box of pencils worth? Fifty pence? £3.99 if the pencils have rubbers on the ends? Well, if they're part of a Damien Hirst art installation, the value is £500,000. That is what 17-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain discovered when he pilfered some pencils from Hirst's sculpture Pharmacy.
‘Graffiti artist’…?
And that wasn't all – he was arrested, released on bail, and is waiting to find out if he will be formally charged with causing damage to an iconic artwork worth £10m.
*sigh*

It seems this spat has been ongoing for a while:
He originally locked horns with the millionaire artist last year, when he used an image of Hirst's famous diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God, to create collages that were put up for sale on an art website.
And on seeing a challenge, the elder ‘artist’ flared his nostrils, pawed the ground, and charged in to do battle with the young usurper the time-honoured ‘artist’ way.

By proxy:
Hirst reported him to the Design and Artists Copyright Society and a string of legal letters were sent to Cartrain's art dealer, Tom Cuthbert, at 100artworks.com, about the teenager's pieces, also called For the Love of God. The online gallery surrendered them to Hirst with a verbal apology.
Oh, for the days when gentlemen settled their differences on Hampstead Heath with pearl-handled duelling pistols.

At least that provided some entertainment. This is like watching a couple of bitchy schoolgirls pulling each other’s hair…
Taking revenge, Cartrain took the box of pencils that were part of Hirst's sculpture, Pharmacy, which was being shown as part of its Classified exhibition that closed at the end of last month.

He then created a "wanted"-style poster that read: "For the safe return of Damien Hirst's pencils I would like my artworks back that DACS and Hirst took off me in November. It's not a large demand... Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31 July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned.
I’d almost feel sorry for the police, having to intervene in this unseemly slapfest, except for the fact that when the cry went up ‘Arrest the usual suspects’, it was followed by ‘And their innocent relatives too!’:
Police also arrested Cartrain's 49-year-old father, who they suspected of harbouring the pencils. "Initially, we arrested his dad but it soon became clear that it was his son who was responsible," said a police source. "We arranged to arrest him by appointment. The act of theft was clearly a stunt to gain publicity."
That’s policing now? Arrest everyone, let the courts sort it out?

8 comments:

Macheath said...

Nice to see the art world setting such high standards of behaviour; still, I don't suppose Damian Hirst got where he is today by demonstrating selfless magnanimity.

If Cartrain's aim was publicity, Hirst has certainly helped him achieve it. Incidentally, I love the idea of arranging to arrest the boy 'by appointment'.

"Well, Officer, I can't do Tuesday because I'm having my hair cut, but Wednesday....oh, no, that's when I go to see my Gran. How about Thursday; will that do? Great! I'll call the papers right away."

Dr Melvin T Gray said...

What profits a few to have friends in high places is the loss of others.

James Higham said...

This is like watching a couple of bitchy schoolgirls pulling each other’s hair…

It's honey trappings now. And urging your boyfriend to kill her in Italy.

Rob said...

Funny how supporters of the counter-culture get all biblical when they are the wronged ones, and suddenly the Law, the police, etc, all that old discredited stuff, suddenly becomes important again.

Stan said...

Fifty years ago, if Hirst had made this complaint to the police, the sergeant would have walked away from the counter to the stationery cupboard, picked out a box of pencils, returned to the desk and handed them to Mr Hirst. Problem solved - no more need to waste police time and any insistence by Hirst that they take it further would have been met with a polite request to not waste any more of their time.

When did we give up on "common sense"?

JuliaM said...

"Nice to see the art world setting such high standards of behaviour"

To be honest, do we really expect any better?

"Funny how supporters of the counter-culture get all biblical when they are the wronged ones, and suddenly the Law, the police, etc, all that old discredited stuff, suddenly becomes important again."

Amazing, isn't it?

"When did we give up on "common sense"?"

Probably round about the time that the stuff Hirst and his eager young rival churn out became considered to be 'art'...

Macheath said...

considered to be 'art'...

That's the real problem - it all has to hinge on the issue of intellectual property because there is no practised draughtsmanship involved.

It's hard to imagine Rembrandt or Holbein losing any sleep - let alone their dignity - because of a 17-year-old churning out multiple copies of their work.

100artworks.com said...

Please support Cartrain...
Artworks available from www.100artworks.com