Robin Pogrebin has the news that Damien Hirst and Gagosian Gallery are working together again after a four year hiatus.
According to Pogrebin’s item, Gagosian feels there’s plenty of demand but he hints at the issue bedeviling Hirst’s market:
“He’s a great artist, and it’s exciting to reboot the relationship,” Mr. Gagosian said. “It feels very fresh to me. I know a lot of collectors remain very, very interested in Damien and are extremely curious to see what he’s doing.”
Most market commenters blame the pullback in Hirst’s prices on the 2008 sale Hirst held at Sotheby’s supposedly flooding the market with work. But that sale also marked the end of Hirst’s progression as an artist. With the exception of the ill-received paintings shown at the Wallace Collection in London, Hirst’s work seems more historical than ever.
Here’s how Gagosian’s gallery describes the upcoming Frieze booth devoted to Hirst:
“It will be a classical presentation — an early shark piece, instrument cabinet, medicine cabinet, butterfly painting,” said Millicent Wilner, a director at Gagosian in London, who is the gallery’s Hirst liaison. “We wanted to present him in the way most people think of Damien.”
Damien Hirst Returns to Gagosian Gallery (The New York Times)