[Pure Evil]

Hirst to mentor Young British Artist

HAVING TROUSERED £130m from his recent sell-out exhibition, Damien Hirst is trying his hand at the Charles Saatchi role. Emulating the work of his erstwhile patron - Saatchi fostered Hirst's career, buying up his works during the 1990s - the Ageing British Artist has taken fledgling artist/designer Paul Insect under his wing.

He has dropped a cool £500,000 to buy Insect's entire new show, which is at the Lazarides Gallery in Soho. Like Hirst (pictured), Insect is interested in investigating violence and death in his art.

The most notable piece from this exhibition is Bullion, a half ton installation of gold-plated bullion bars, which was priced at £100,000 - a mere snip for Hirst, currently the wealthiest artist on the planet.

[dave313perry]

Que the price rise of insect then as the flippers go wild! wooo!

[budoukiba]

Wow!! Where was this taken from?

[Paul]

it wasn't all sold out immediately though, i went there at six anf there was a lot of work available. i picked up one of the gold cow pieces and certainly wont be flipping!

[budoukiba]

It's about time Insect gets the props he deserves. He's a fantastic artist and his work is well under rated. I guess thats about to change!!!

[Pure Evil]

This is from THE TELEGRAPH so it must be true, right ??

Damien Hirst is beginning to take on some of the attributes of his erstwhile patron, Charles Saatchi.

Last week he bought an entire exhibition before it had even opened. Clearly flush from his £130 million sell-out exhibition at White Cube (bar the diamond skull), he spent £500,000 on works by artist/designer Paul Insect, which went on view at the Lazarides Gallery in Soho on Friday.

Insect takes found images from popular culture and materials from the street and mutates them into images of violence and death.

One of the paintings in the show, Dunce Boy, shows a man wearing a skeleton mask and a dunce's hat decorated with the Stars and Stripes, and toting a machine gun.

The painting refers to the way in which a school outcast can become the aggressor.

The main work in the show, entitled Bullion, is a half-ton installation of gold-plated "bullion bars".

It was priced at £100,000 - a mere snip for Hirst, who is currently the wealthiest artist on the planet."

[scavos]

This is amazing news. I'm not too sure how I feel about it right now to be honest. ;D But it's amazing all the same.
On one hand I wonder what effect this will have on the availability of Insect's work and what influence Hirst might have. Whilst on the other I'm really pleased for the fella because he deserves the recognition this will bring.
Paul was the very first artist I ever communicated with, probably a couple of years ago, purely as a fan of his work. I'd seen an image of his The Eye (Molecular Eye) piece which blew me away. So simple - blue and yellow molecular images over an old anatomical eye on archival paper. He has always been friendly, communicative, helpful and is truly a man of his word. On his return from America He very kindly sent me a free dog target print that he'd been pasting up all over the place whilst out in LA with Banksy last year.
Whilst I'm not personally a big fan of the Warhol cows or Dunce Boy, I love the Peace and Love gun images as well as the Dead Rebels series. The Kid is great too. The one that I particularly enjoy is the badge set on targets which makes me laugh every time I see it. I have it stored away at the moment as I'm moving soon and miss it already for the wry smile it brings to my face.
I for one will continue to watch out for Mr Insect for whatever is going to happen next. I'm confident he'll be staying in touch every now and again too. Bless 'im

[Pure Evil]

Dead Rebels looked wicked cool at Santas Ghetto, and when he did the signing with DJ Shadow he was a dude... plus he has a nice bicycle...

good fer him..

[brainthedog]

so does this mean you guys are going to buy more cows?

[Winter]

I think if numbers of the Insect prints on POW start going down there's going to be a rush. Probably.

[twigboy]

Found some photos of the 'Bullion' opening night on this site
jaguarshoes.com/?p=2&b=18&a=109
Must get down to see this.

[graeme501]

very interesting news and should be gd stuff

when i was phoning laz today to get a unsigned insect book the woman was like 'if u dont get the signed one you'll regreat it ... i promise you'

so she twisted my arm and im glad she did

[Gentle Mental]

bought the entire show? does that mean even the prints are gone?

[Curley]

gentlemental said:

bought the entire show? does that mean even the prints are gone?

No, the editions of 50 are still available at the gallery or on laz website.
C

[corblimeylimey]

Bullion Bars available from Laz too (100 ed) £1200 + VAT

[runningdog]

Don't forget folks, cr4p is still cr4p, even if it has a £5000 price tag. Not that anyone here needs reminding of that of course.


(Disclaimer: I am in no way comparing Insect's work to faeces - just making an entirely unrelated statement, thank you.)

[Run Pig Run]

do you reckon he actually paid half a mill or the Lazfather just said to him "ear, can i say you bought the whole exhibition and get a fuckload of press and these forums tossers will be lapping all the prints up"

[closeencounters]

what an incredible series of events!! it will be really interesting to see the short and long term effects of this cross-over period for Insect and other artists connected to Laz... who's next on Hirst's hit list? and will he assemble an elite team of artists to sweep the world and create a more visually exciting experience for us as soon as we step out of our front doors?!!

[Daniel Silk]

Jul 25, 2007 18:46:30 GMT 1 Pure Evil said:

Hirst to mentor Young British Artist

HAVING TROUSERED £130m from his recent sell-out exhibition, Damien Hirst is trying his hand at the Charles Saatchi role. Emulating the work of his erstwhile patron - Saatchi fostered Hirst's career, buying up his works during the 1990s - the Ageing British Artist has taken fledgling artist/designer Paul Insect under his wing.

He has dropped a cool £500,000 to buy Insect's entire new show, which is at the Lazarides Gallery in Soho. Like Hirst (pictured), Insect is interested in investigating violence and death in his art.

The most notable piece from this exhibition is Bullion, a half ton installation of gold-plated bullion bars, which was priced at £100,000 - a mere snip for Hirst, currently the wealthiest artist on the planet.

😂