![]() ![]() If someone’s famous, they’re good, particularly if they’re an artist. The real question here is whether the personality of the artist is going to last longer in the 21st century than the artworks they leave behind them?Ben Lewis: One of the really interesting things about our culture is that we think celebrity is a kind of value. Godfrey Barker: The personality cult has been around for a long time. Vezzoli uses celebrity, it’s what his work is mostly about, but he’s not like an Andy Warhol – he doesn’t adore celebrity. How can one live in this world and not be interested in this culture? Not all artists are, but many investigate it and God bless them, someone’s got to. His new piece premiered recently in Los Angeles and featured the Boshoi ballet and Lady Gaga. He first came to international recognition with his film Trailer for Gore Vidal’s Caligula in which he cast a lot of his famous friends, including Courtney Love. He’s very interested in media culture.įrancesco Vezzoli is another example. I think Richard Prince has been one of the most consistent artists in his treatment of celebrity. Jeff Koons’s Michael Jackson With Bubbles is a kind of investigation of celebrity, the power of celebrity, the force of celebrity. Arguably Dali was destroyed by his own celebrity, by becoming a persona. It’s natural that the artists would deal with it. ![]() It’s become an integral part of his practice.Īnthony Haden-Guest: The question was: is there a cult of celebrity in the art world? There’s a cult of celebrity in the world, period. This is a good initial starting point for a public education programme.Īnd artists are using this celebrity in a really intelligent way. In Britain, any butcher or cabbie can name a living British artist. They are recognisable, however, and that is interesting. I feel quite confident that Damien Hirst could walk down the meat aisle in Tesco without getting mobbed. Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are often described as famous, but for me, Michael Jackson is famous, Nicole Kidman is famous. I can’t think of any other country where contemporary art in the media has such a high profile. Patricia Ellis: I think Britain’s unique when it comes to art and celebrity. Richard Noble: Is there such a thing as a cult of celebrity in the contemporary art world and does this somehow compromise the aesthetic and ethical integrity of contemporary art? Where else could artists like Richard Wentworth share a platform with maverick author Julian Spalding – a man who over the course of the weekend branded Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Joseph Beuys “worse than junk" – and stalwart art critic and BBC personality Godfrey Barker learn how to deface public property with graffiti artist Felix Braun?įor those that missed out on last month's art extravaganza, this edited version of the Ephemeral Art And The Cult of Celebrity debate, in which Saatchi Gallery curator Patricia Ellis was joined by film-maker Ben Lewis and legendary art commentators Anthony Haden-Guest and Godfrey Barker should prove enlightening. With ephemeral art hitting the headlines because of Turner Prize-winner Richard Wright's bold anti-art market statement, we bring you a debate from Crunch 09: The Art Festival at Hay, an event that is something of an art world anomaly. ![]()
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