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Article: Portrait of the artist as a brand; Art market; Damien Hirst's empire.(like most successful consumer businesses, Damien Hirst's empire is based on a strong brand and an efficient manufacturing operation)(Britain)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 10, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AT AUCTION, Damien Hirst's pictures do not fetch the prices that the modern masters command. One of his paintings of rows of different coloured spots, up for auction at Sotheby's in London on February 7th, went for [pound]220,000, while Lucian Freud's "Large Interior W 11"-the most expensive painting by a living British artist-fetched [pound]3.3m in 1998. But as a businessman, Mr Hirst, the driving force behind the BritArt movement, is unsurpassed.
"Becoming a brand name is an important part of life," says Mr Hirst. "It's the world we live in." The happy conjunction of a strong brand with a wide variety of products, many of them low-cost, leaves him with enviable ...