The Damien Hirst auction "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" is a great example of the commodification of art. Hirst has always had an uncanny knack for self-marketing and advertisement, especially among artists. His works could easily have been dismissed as devoid of creative or aesthetic quality; anyone, with or without skill, can place a shark in a formaldehyde tank or paint multicolored spots on a canvas, especially when they have an army of assistants to mass-produce the work for them. Yet Hirst continually finds ways to insert value into his creations, often through a catchy title or successful promotion, creating abstract and though-provoking messages that can be attributed metaphorically to his artwork. This premise can be applied to almost anything, but Hirst has done it masterfully. He came at the right time; just when the global demand for contemporary art was at its peak, driven by the rising count of multimillionaires and billionaires on the global economic scene and their desire to express and signal their wealth and status through cultural purchases like art, Hirst has become the heavily monetized symbol of status-filled artwork. His art is derived through perceived value, which is a function of highly visible past works that have garnered exorbitant prices, and the strong name brand that has become associated with him and lends value to all future works of art he has produced. He burst on the scene with four seminal pieces, each of which outdid the last in extravagance and shocking quality, engaging public attention and creating market demand. These works were The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which is effectively a shark in a tank of formaldehyde, A Thousand Years, which is a large tank in which maggots become flies, feed, and die, The Golden Calf, which is a cow in a tank of formaldehyde with golden hoofs and a golden crown, and For the Love of God, which is a skull encased in gold and diamonds. Each of these pieces can be easily associated with created meaning and metaphor, and each have the shock value necessary to engage public attention and critical coverage. Ironically, each can also be viewed as Hirst's silent commentary on the art market, and its ability to be manipulated into buying artwork devoid of aesthetic value for the sole reason that the rest of the art world considers it valuable; it is a testimony to the obsession with wealth and prestige that creates artificial demand for these goods.
Of course, if one's livelihood depends on brand name an public perception, it is vital that this perception be effectively managed. While Hirst has succeeded in doing so for much of his career, it seems that he has overextended himself, and is at risk of losing considerable reputation capital and prestige. The Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction was another attempt by Hirst at redefining the art marketplace, just as his contemporary art has done over the last decade. Hirst effectively circumvented the dealers for the first time. Instead of subjecting himself to the sizable cut dealers normally take, he sold over 200 original works at auction, bringing fresh artwork directly to the public market in an unprecedented move. Only several artists have the international clout and standing to get away with this and support an entire auction on reputation alone. Hirst is the classic market-based artist; while in general dealers are praised for their ability to maintain the integrity of art, which they do by selling to buyers only selectively, after ensuring that the buyers are not profit-driven and will donate to museums and increase the prestige of the artists, Hirst has embraced the fact that he is a producer of art as a commodity. He is trying to bridge the gap between producer and consumer, cutting out the middleman, and modernizing the art market into a truly competitive, transparent landscape. This is an important step towards fully converting art into a market commodity, and is not without its critics.
However, in my view, the art market cannot function with this perspective. Even though most of the demand is artificial and is based on buyer perception, art still retains the majority of its value through its inherent scarcity and uniqueness, and the skill that was required in its production. By definition, art cannot be easily copied or replaced without losing value. Because it does not produce cash flows or provide economic or practical benefit to its owner, the aesthetic quality and differentiation between each piece is of paramount importance. It cannot be mass-produced without sacrificing demand. Hirst's model has always been at risk of devaluation, as he employs an army of assistants in producing work that fills only five categories. He got away with it by not mass-producing his art and riding on the prestige garnered from several noteworthy pieces early in his career. The auction noted above, while bold and cutting-edge, effectively unraveled most of Hirst's early success; he mass-produced items that were at great risk of being mass-produced. His works were not distinct enough to survive their oversupply, and while Hirst had brand-capital previously unseen in the art world, he failed to understand one of the basic tenets of economics: when supply skyrockets, each individual unit, by definition, becomes less valuable. Operating in the Hirst model of mass-production and limited differentiation, this can be a death sentence. As theory proves, Hirst has seen his prices fall drastically since the auction, as outlined by several graphs highlight below. By his own admission, Hirst created the four seminal pieces described above, and the rest is just "puff." Hirst will always be famous, even after his death, for what he represented and the change he brought about the marketplace, but unless he creates new masterpieces or drastically changes his style of production or the mediums he works with, his greatest successes might be behind him.
An interesting parallel to consider is the comparison between Damien Hirst and his own Golden Calf: Hirst is the king of the art world, glorified and worshiped by the crowds, but without any real substance.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1838750-3,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1774353335_1839008,00.html
http://artmarketmonitor.com/2010/02/06/beautiful-inside-my-head-whatever/
Graphs highlighting the declining performance of Hirst's artwork (for space considerations)
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