Music | October 10, 2008 | 2 comments

Queen's composer picks a fight with Damien Hirst

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/arts/10arts-THEQUEENSCOM_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

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Apocalipstick
It’s not Norman Mailer versus Gore Vidal redux, but the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies appeared to be instigating his own feud with the artist Damien Hirst, according to remarks reported by The Times of London. In a speech made to the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, Mr. Davies, who in 2004 was named Master of the Queen’s Music, deplored a recent Sotheby’s auction at which Mr. Hirst’s works (including “The Golden Calf,” a tank containing a cow in formaldehyde) fetched a total of $200.7 million. “It reminds me of the Liberace museum in Las Vegas,” Mr. Davies said, according to The Times, “where the great man’s tatty stage costumes are exhibited, each with a fabulous price tag, and we are supposed to be uplifted.”
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2 comments // Queen's composer picks a fight with Damien Hirst

  • Mmmm
  • abbym0308
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      abbym0308  
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    • Davies' attack was pointed at Hirst but is really a wider criticism of the "dumbing down" of British culture and society. He said that not only the creators and buyers in the art industry, but politicians and educators have gotten stuck in an "age of commercial depravity and irresponsibility."

      He makes an interesting argument that makes me think about how so many aspects of society have fallen victim to hyper-commercialization and commodification... like how people are famous for being famous and not for any significant achievement, or things are expensive because of a label and not because it's well made or will last. But have we gotten so far into this that it's become normal and we don't notice or question? Or is it something that can still be changed?

    • 3 years ago
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