PREVIEW: Richard Stone: gleam
1 September 2014 • daniel barnes
In his first solo show with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Richard Stone presents a new body of work which both consolidates and advances his practice.
Author: daniel barnes
I am a writer teacher and curator with an interest in contemporary British art and popular culture. In the past, I have written for Aesthetica, Winq and this is tomorrow, as well as having given lectures at universities and galleries nationwide, not to mention my stint as philosopher in residence on the Butcher's Apron Radio Show. These days, I divide my time between teaching English in an FE college and writing a book about Damien Hirst, as well as writing for FAD. My first book, The Value Industry, which explores the relationship between art and money, is available now from amazon.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #32: The Ursprung of Modern Art
29 August 2014 • daniel barnes
One of the most important interventions in art history is built upon a myth.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #31: The Genesis of a Fable
22 August 2014 • daniel barnes
If Damien Hirst did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. In the late 1980s, the London artworld, flooded with Koons, Kiefer and Schnabel, needed a glittering new star.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #30: Only Venture Capitalists Can Play with This Balloon
15 August 2014 • daniel barnes
The Jeff Koons retrospective, currently on show at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, demonstrates the terrifying power of an art superstar who can secure the impunity to make a lot of terrible work on the basis of a few great pieces.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #29: Like a Dog Returns to Its Vomit
8 August 2014 • daniel barnes
Jake and Dinos Chapman are nearing the end of a crowdfunding campaign for an exhibition in their hometown of Hastings.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #28: Everything in Its Right Place
1 August 2014 • daniel barnes
The idea that commercial galleries do not sell to just anyone, but select their clients very carefully, sounds like outright elitism. It sounds as if they deliberately seek out the rich and powerful….
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #27: The Real Value of an Idea in the Mind of Someone Living
25 July 2014 • daniel barnes
Damien Hirst has commanded the destruction of an early Spot Painting……
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #26: They Studied Sculpture at St Martin’s College…
18 July 2014 • daniel barnes
Two people, one artist, making art for all in their tweed suits, dining every day in the same restaurant because they don’t have a kitchen, with no friends and traditional Conservative values.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas ?25: Some Kind of Midas
11 July 2014 • daniel barnes
The question of value in art presupposes an idea of what art is, since to value something is to recognise certain qualities that are worthy of appreciation and can be given a price.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #24: We’re Paying with the Love Tonight
4 July 2014 • daniel barnes
The saleroom was electric. Not like it’s got a family full of eccentrics, but like important things were about to happen.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #23: Empire Strikes Back
27 June 2014 • daniel barnes
The result is that contemporary art is a myth without a foundation, a copy without an original, a market commodity that is an abstraction at heart.
Three stunning paintings from the Bacchus series by Cy Twombly donated to Tate
20 June 2014 • daniel barnes
The Tate has this week received its most valuable and exciting bequest in quite some years: Sir Nicholas Serota announced a donation of three stunning paintings from the Bacchus series by Cy Twombly.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #21: Everything You Steal Will Turn to Ash
13 June 2014 • daniel barnes
This immanent and inevitable catastrophe is a lesson in how the unchecked might of the market renders impotent the museums whose mandate is to preserve our rich cultural history.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #20: From Street to Canvas
6 June 2014 • daniel barnes
The phenomenon of Basquiat’s prices and the more general taste for street art of which it is symptomatic is a product of the art market’s ability to disseminate otherwise obscure art and to launch it into the establishment.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #19: Beautiful Inside Everyone’s Head Forever
2 June 2014 • daniel barnes
On the evening of 15th September 2008 three completely unrelated events occurred, which determined this precise moment in time. This is the story of how art survived recession in spectacular fashion and how a philosopher, an artist and a bank unwittingly crossed paths.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #18: The Virtually Inclusive Art Market
23 May 2014 • daniel barnes
The art bubble continues to inflate, enjoying an absence of natural predators and external regulation.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #17: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Priceless
16 May 2014 • daniel barnes
It is often said, quite casually, that a work of art is priceless.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #16: Prize and Shine, It’s Turner Time
9 May 2014 • daniel barnes
This strategy, however, can backfire if it makes contemporary art seem too stern or obscure for a wider audience to grasp. And there is a very real fear that that has happened this year.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #15: Laughing All the Way to the Banksy
2 May 2014 • daniel barnes
A crisis of ownership and authenticity has erupted over the sale of seven Banksy murals which were removed from the streets of London by a cowboy art dealership called Stealing Banksy?
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #14: A Rolling Schnabel Gathers No Sparks
25 April 2014 • daniel barnes
Culture has a selective memory because it diminishes the thrill of the Now
REVIEW: Julian Schnabel: Every Angel Has a Dark Side
24 April 2014 • daniel barnes
The paintings in this exhibition, his first in London for nearly fifteen years, perfectly exemplify the unbearable lightness of being Julian Schnabel.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #13: What You See is What I Sell
18 April 2014 • daniel barnes
The recent announcement of the UK’s top ten most expensive living artists offers a sobering opportunity to think about the extent to which contemporary art has been infected by its entanglement with money.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #12: Hammer Horrors
11 April 2014 • daniel barnes
The price of art is a much discussed and much maligned phenomenon. But whilst there may sometimes be good grounds for suspicion, a lot of what we hear about the price of art is a wilful fantasy of the media, fuelled by a perennially disingenuous market.
Daniel’s Value and Ideas #11: The Great Dictator, or, Rebel with a Cause
4 April 2014 • daniel barnes
Imagine a millionaire who lives on a diet of boiled eggs and iced coffee. He is an altruist and a patron, he is a tyrant and a menace. Imagine that he made the careers of today’s top artists,