London artist Damien Hirst burns hundreds of his painting worth 10 million pounds. Here's why
Artists do an awful lot of crazy experiments for getting fame or just for taking their art to a whole new level. Damien Hirst, UK's richest artist has now started burning hundreds of his paintings.
Hirst took to Instagram to show his act of burning his own paintings which are estimated to be around 10 million pounds (Rs 92,44,77,900).
Why? The 57-year-old burned his paintings in his two-storied Newport Street Gallery in London on Tuesday. The gallery was filled with journalists and camera crews to watch him in action. Hirst charred his painting into six glass-cased incinerators as part of his latest commentary "on the value of art and the forces that dictate it".
The paintings that he burned were a part of Hirst's first NFT project "The Currency," which he began six years ago with the creation of 10,000 unique dotted paintings. These paintings were first stored in the vault and offered collectors a chance to swap the physical ones with the corresponding NFTs. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other.
The exchange period closed on July 27, 2022 and 5,149 collectors decided to keep the physical artwork, and 4,851 the NFT. If the collector did not exchange their NFT during that period, the physical artwork will be destroyed and vice versa.
Hirst commenced burning his own artworks a day before Frieze Week (London's cultural famous programme) and will continue burning his paintings till October 30, 2022.
Criticism: Many have criticised Hirst for burning his own valuable artworks during a cost-of-living crisis around the world.
"Still, look at it this way, even if you can't afford to turn on your heating at home, just go to Newport Street Gallery: it's free and it should be nice and toasty with all those £20,000 paintings on fire",he added
Hirst's Response: Hirst in an interview with BBC, said that he is not wasting millions of dollars of his hard work.
"The value of art, digital or physical, which is hard to define at the best of times will not be lost; it will be transferred to the NFT as soon as they are burnt", he added.
Raising controversies since 1990: In the 1990s, Hirst became famous as a Young British Artist, a practice that some critics described as a publicity stunt.
Despite winning the Turner Prize in 1995 and selling millions of pieces and being the richest artist in London, he is still one of Britain's most controversial artists.
Much of his work has divided critics, including one featuring:
- A dead shark floating in formaldehyde
- A bisected cow and calf
- A lamb 'caught in action' in formaldehyde solution
He is known for his spot paintings and "For The Love Of God", a platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull encrusted with diamonds.