Pat Dollard

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Yeah, I’ll bet it’s gonna be beautiful inside his head forever. I don’t care what anyone has to say about art or how beautiful the pieces really are, blah, blah… but as for what they really mean to the artist and were meant by him to mean to the world, and as to the questions of how special or especially beautiful they are, I’ll look to a scenario I’m certain will happen: one night he’s going to be just past the line of drooling drunk and say to a friend: “Dude, can you believe how much money I made from those corpses?”

-Pat

Excerpted From The New York Times:

LONDON — Against a backdrop of reeling financial markets and nervous investors, Sotheby’s and the British artist Damien Hirst forged ahead with “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” a highly publicized auction of works by Mr. Hirst and all made within the last two years.

In a gamble that could have ramifications for other artists, Mr. Hirst was bypassing galleries and taking his work straight to auction.

And there were signs that the bet was paying off: the first session’s total was $127.2 million.

“I woke up this morning in the teeth of the gale of recession,” Mr. Hirst’s business manager, Frank Dunphy, said after the sale, “but we came out as confident as ever.”

Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, explained the total this way: “Damien Hirst is a global artist that can defy local economies.” Jose Mugrabi, a New York dealer, had another take: “Today people believe more in art than the stock market. At least it’s something you can enjoy.”

Mr. Hirst could not have anticipated the sale’s timing, amid news that Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy and other serious changes on the financial landscape. Sotheby’s was said to be taking steps to ensure that the sale did not fall flat, like offering buyers a six-month grace period to pay for purchases.

The headlines had little effect on the scene outside the salesroom here. The street was filled with television camera crews; fans hoping to spot celebrities like Bianca Jagger; and a crowd waiting for the doors to open. Inside later it was standing room only.

On Monday, the evening’s star was “The Golden Calf,” a young white bull preserved in formaldehyde, with hoofs and horns made of 18-carat gold and a gold disc crowning the head. The work was estimated at $15.8 million to $23.6 million and drew three bidders. It went for $18.6 million to a buyer on the phone.

A work along similar lines, “The Black Sheep With the Golden Horn,” had just two bidders, with the winner paying $4.7 million, in the middle of its $3.9 million to $5.9 million estimate. Three potential buyers vied for “The Kingdom,” another formaldehyde-preserved work, this one a tiger shark. It sold for $17.2 million, well above its high estimate of $11.8 million.

As part of his sales pitch, Mr. Hirst said that he would no longer be making butterfly paintings and that there would be far fewer dead animals.