In this market we know that artistic value and price do not always go hand in hand. The contribution of each artist to the history of art is one thing and his contributions are another, which are determined by a long list of conditions, not always aligned with his artistic worth. And some creators know how to play very well with the hidden threads that move this market. If I had to name just three, one would be Damien Hirst, who has historically been able to subvert the traditional and strict rules of this industry to his own advantage; another, Maurizio Cattelan, who has made provocation a formula for gaining notoriety; and, of course, Banksy, who is capable of stressing the structures of the art world like few others and ensuring that its disruptions become authentic artistic performances. The artistic interest of each one of them can be questioned, but as an analyst, I assure you that their behavior seems fascinating to me.
Damien Hirst has lately accustomed us to flirting with new technologies to achieve massive sales of his works that bring him huge profits. The last? A new project developed with the HENI platform. They have generated an application that allows buyers to "design" both an NFT and a painting by the artist according to the specifications that they have previously entered in the menu (the Spin Generator). Generative algorithms and chance “paint” the rest.
From there, it will be a machine that will produce the design according to the selected format, colors, styles and measurements, turning it into a unique work that the artist himself will sign. He has called them The Beatiful Paintings (the beautiful paintings), but no one escapes that it is the same title that he used in the nineties for his paintings generated thanks to the rotation of a rotor, the so-called Spin Paintings.
NFTs sell for $2,000 and paintings, if you decide to order one, will cost between $1,500 and $6,000. Some are on display these days at HENI's London headquarters.
His claim sounds somewhat pretentious when he states that "it is a radical movement to expand the limits of artistic creation, both physical and digital." But he has created a project that in just nine days sold 5,508 paintings and already brought him some 20.9 million dollars.
