Chill of recession hits London Frieze art bonanza

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-15 08:12

British artist Damien Hirst, who has profited perhaps more than anyone from sky-high prices, holds an exhibition of new paintings at the Wallace Collection opening on Wednesday.

"No Love Lost" is a series of 25 paintings, many featuring the image of a skull against dark blue-black backgrounds in works reminiscent of Gerhard Richter or Francis Bacon.

Despite his reputation as the master of marketing, the 44-year-old said there was a difference between good art and expensive art.

"Good art is good art whether it's selling or not," he said. "I've got things on my wall that I bought that are probably worth 10 percent of what I paid for them.

"In a dark moment you might ... worry about it, but if you walk past it in a room and you look at it you just go 'that's great'. My business manager said to me the only time you have to worry about what something costs is when you want to sell it."

Previous 1 2 Next Page