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Cartrain vs Damien Hirst: The Pop Art War
One has a retrospective in possibly the biggest gallery in the world, for free. The other costs £14 and is at the Tate Modern
The battle still rages between David and Goliath and this summer, the anti has just been ratcheted-up a few more notches with both artists putting on their biggest exhibitions simultaneously. One has a retrospective in possibly the biggest gallery in the world, is fun, fluid, forward-thinking and free. The other costs £14 and is at the Tate Modern.
This ding-dong between Cartrain and Hirst all began when Hirst took offence to Cartrain (then aged 16), using his jewelled skull image in a print. Hirst bleated to the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) and demanded action be taken over the print. On advice from the gallery, Cartrain handed over the artworks and the £200 he had made. A year later, to even the score, Cartrain removed a packet of Faber Castell 1990 Mongol 482 series pencils from a Hirst installation on show at the Tate. He then designed fake police wanted posters (see above), saying the pencils would be sharpened if the DACS didn’t return his money and artworks. The authorities took a dim view of this and Cartrain was arrested for a £500,000 art theft – possibly the biggest art theft in British history. After making an appointment to arrest him, the Metropolitan Police later dropped all charges. The pencils haven’t been wasted, Cartrain now uses them to sign and number all his prints.
On advice from the gallery, Cartrain handed over the artworks and the £200 he had made. A year later, to even the score, Cartrain removed a packet of Faber Castell 1990 Mongol 482 series pencils from a Hirst installation on show at the Tate.
With the Olympics focusing attention on London, the art world needed a big summer attraction to dazzle the tourists and fleece them of their hard-earned. Instead of picking an artist limited to 14,000 spot paintings, someone fresh, innovative and challenging stepped up to the mark. Before the art world could say ‘darling’, and coinciding with the opening of the Hirst retrospective, overnight new artworks appeared all over London by the artist Cartrain. Using the top of bus shelters as display cabinets, Einstein-stenciled 12-inch records suddenly appeared. Cartrain-framed montages were glued to walls and his spray work, with his signature left-wing bias, appeared as if by magic. And all of this free and for everyone to see. What’s more, it’s interesting, exciting and well executed.
Meanwhile, back at the Tate Modern, many important people had sat around desks planning years in advance the greatest exhibition in the gallery’s history. They wanted a show that would leave you in no doubt about what bad art looks like. So they designed one where you spend fourteen quid, queue to stand in a crowded gallery and view bland, factory-produced mediocrity. Job done! And what’s more, you’d be left wondering why this crap wasn’t on display in the hotel lobby which it’s better suited for.
So, two British artists with major exhibitions this summer battling it out for the hearts and minds of art lovers. One is south side of the river in an old power station, the other all over London. One you have to book and pay for, the other is free. One artist is a middle-aged multi-millionaire, the other a well-respected twenty something with more street cred than money can buy. What does this say about art? Who says art is art? It’s up to us to decide…
Damien Hirst: Tate Modern, 4 April to 9 September 2012. £14 entry.
Cartrain: Bus Shelters and Brick Walls (mainly in E1 and E2), from today until the council removes all traces. Entry free.
Cartrain of course has continued to use the jewelled skull motif in his works and has even placed a piece in the National Portrait gallery London for all to see.
Rowan also writes here at The Chairman of the Board
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COMMENTS
Nice one Cartrain!
Ineresting piece. Ta. However I don't know why people feel the need to slag off Damien Hirst. He is an incredible artist. He's very astute and very shrewd. He's also very generous and altruistic. Above all he is not, whatever people want to believe, a pretentious twat, he's a lad from Leeds wiiyh a great sense if humour who has worked hard and uses his intellect to exploit every situation. He uses his money to buy art from struggling artists and to fund mammoth projects, his latest being the restoration of stately home to house his collection of purchased art. His work and influence is superb, The diamond skull is one of the most stunning artefacts in the world, I was lucky enough to see it. All he does is optimise his position. We should be proud of him. Cartrain, on the other hand, isn't really that good.
I think the fact that he is astute and shrewd, are exactly the things that don't sit easily within some sections of the public. I think people perceive a certain level of smugness in his demeanour, and a hunger for ruthless profiteering that they believe shouldn't be in the make up of an artist. I personally have no taste for Hirst's work, i think its over rated, over hyped and smacks of the emperor's new clothes. That said, its only my opinion of his work, its just not for me. As for Cartrain, his actions are amusing if a little childish, but then again Hirst whingeing to the DACS is not only obscenely hypocritical, but exactly the sort of fuel for people to come to the conclusion that he is indeed, a pretentious twat. I don't think his work and influence is superb, I think it signals a decline in standards and is symptomatic of the current trend for cutting corners, polishing turds and taking the piss quite frankly. Just because you're a 'lad from Leeds' with a 'great sense of humour' doesn't give you immunity from escaping up your own arse, in fact it probably helps to propel it up there.
Hmmmm it's very cool (nay, trendy) to not like Damien Hirst. However I, and many other people who know their stuff rather than mindlessly believing what they read, will continue to take an active interest in his ongoing body of challenging and stimulating work with an open mind. If you look at a piece of art and you enjoy it, or enjoy being around it, that is all that matters. If you pay any mind to anything other than the work then it is you who is being pretentious.
Completely agree that if you enjoy a piece and all that goes with it, then that is all that matters- if you read my point properly, i didn't say his art was pretentious. I said that people could come to the conclusion that he was pretentious because of the way he views his work and his ideas in such a fashion, that leads him to involve a draconian authority to reprimand Cartrain for doing something that he himself could be accused of doing. Think you've missed my point.
I didn't miss any point. I get the feeling that you don't know what it is you're trying to pointlessly debate and you know even less of the facts. I suggest we leave it here
Ps I can't believe you said 'emporers new clothes'
What facts am I not aware of? If you perhaps enlightened us all as to what you know about Hirst, other than this heart warming knowledge of him buying massive properties to house his bloated art collection whilst cracking jokes and 'being from Leeds', then you could have some substance in your smugness. What 'stuff' do you know?
Oh shit off
Thought so.
Thomas sounds like a student to me, and a dick.
@Robin Lee - He didn't say "emporers new clothes" he said "emperor's new clothes" so he can spell and you sound like a tit, "However I, and many other people who know their stuff..." and a conceited tit that's sat in an art school lecture once or twice and has a couple of coffee table books at that. So, to say you "know your stuff" suggests that you've seen it before and I'm forced to agree with you, it is repetitive, but that’s the only agreement you'll get from me. As for the skull "one of the most stunning artefacts in the world", just fuck right off, it's a posh jewellers Halloween trinket at best.
One day Hirst will see this: http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Sculpture-Found-Objects-CARP/338230/1401545/view
Hi. I dont think your comments on Hirst are fare or informed at all. Also, just because Cartrain is more current doesn't make him a better artist. In fact i've seen graf that he's pretty much a carbon copy of...
R. Emora. Congratulations on celebrating something crap with an equally shite piece of "art". Good luck getting your $2,000,000. At least Hirst was original.
I've never heard of Cartrain until now (a Lon-Don thing?) and unfortunately I can't claim to be like Robin Lee and be one of those people who know their stuff so I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to say - I actually like the diamond skull! I've never seen any of Damien Hirst's work in the flesh and wouldn't put my hand in my pocket to see it either. And although it seems a faux pas to judge the person I think it's difficult not to. I don't hate or dislike the fella at all, but I would say he's fairly astute and shrewd and I'm not a student.
First line should say "the ante has just..." Sorry for being a tedious pedant
"The last time I saw paintings as deluded as Damien Hirst's latest works, the artist's name was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi" - Jonathan Jones, May 22nd Guardian, hahahahahahaha
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