Allegedly David Hockney recently took a dig at Damien Hirst when a poster for his upcoming show at the Royal Academy of Art read, “All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally.” The Royal Academy of Art has since clarified that the phrase appeared on Hockney’s gallery wall, not their poster, and Mr. Hockney was not attacking anyone specifically.

This got us thinking. It’s not uncommon for artists to have assistants or employ experienced craftsmen to help with the production of their work. Sometimes, that’s the only way to bring their ideas to life. Sometimes, that process is part of the art’s conceit. Sometimes, they just want the money without doing much of anything. Here’s a brief and wide survey of classical and contemporary artists who conceive, but don’t or didn’t always “make” their own work. This is not exactly “in defense” of Damien Hirst. It’s a bit that, but more of … “in contrast,” just some thoughts to levy the hype and hate currently swirling around the artist. Let’s get to it!

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You must have heard about Damien Hirst’s epic art opening in New York last night, yes? Well, the reviews for his spot paintings have been lukewarm at best. So what’s the big deal? They are just spots. Just spots! He didn’t even paint most of them! We think we might have cracked the enigma, but before we share our theory, let’s flashback to 2008, the origin of all this hype: Ridiculously rich celebrity taxidermist Damien Hirst makes a big splash announcing that he will no longer be making “spots.” In two days, Sotheby’s sells hundreds of Hirst’s works for more than $200 million, motivated by the highly advertised extinction of said “spots.” Then, recently, Hirst announces that he is making spots again (ha! gotcha!) and — as “a perfect storm of banality” — Hirst will be exhibiting them simultaneously at all 11 Gagosian galleries in New York, Paris, Athens, Hong-Kong, and so on. He’ll also give a free “spot” work to any ridiculously rich person who visits all 11 shows during the month-long exhibit. Obnoxious, right? Well, here’s what the critics thought.

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Some art is not meant to last; rather, it’s meant to melt, rot, blow away, disintegrate, disappear… We find these works fascinating. Perhaps its their self-destruction mechanism and their brief life-span that makes them so precious, or maybe it’s their curious, ephemeral materials — ice, butter, singed lit candle wax, festering meat. All these works come with an expiration date, leaving behind withered, deflated corpses and puddles. From Peiro Manzoni to David Lynch, take a gander at some of art’s most “temporary” works in their prime moments. Hurry! Time-sensitive stuff here! Read More »

As tattoo culture grows ever more widespread, we’ve seen ink devoted to all sorts of artistic subject matter, from indie comics to song lyrics. And it appears that we at Flavorpill are not the only ones who have noticed the intersection between high art and body art. In the new documentary Skin, filmmaker Ryan Hope enlists such artists as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Richard Prince in what is described as a “dark, stylish examination of tattoo culture as high art.” The glacially paced trailer doesn’t give away much of what’s in store for viewers, but the visuals sure are intriguing. Watch it after the jump.

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Ah, Halloween preparation. It’s that time we make big plans and end up drunkenly donning cat ears or a witch hat or something because pffft. Why make it complicated? Who says you have to waste your beer tab allowance on something expensive and crappy that you’re probably only going to wear once? Because we care, Flavorpill is bringing you a set of easily DIY Pop Culture Halloween Costume Guides. We’ve already suggested some music-themed options, so here’s our attempts at art-related get-ups!

With the help of our latest installment, you can be “present” as Marina Abramović, raise yourself some hype with a Damien Hirst butterfly-tattooed-crotch, or do a classic Warhol with a new, shiny twist. Get creative, arty people!

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For his latest visual trick, Switzerland-born, New York- and Zurich-based artist Olaf Breuning has transformed a group of nude gals and fellas into crude and alluring representations of seminal 20th-century artists using body paint, DIY props, and humor. The Art Freaks include all-stars like Andy Warhol slathered with chrome-colored paint and adorned with bananas and Takashi Murakami’s character Kiki, wearing nothing but pink and a cardboard psychedelic anime headdress. A few paint jobs mimic the style of these artists — we imagine that Ms. Jackson Pollock was splattered in much the same way the painter himself had splattered his canvases. Others channel and simplify complex internal themes, like the grand Maman spider sculpture series as a paint-doodle on the bare chest of Louise Bourgeois. Presented as a series of “larger than life-size” photographs at NYC’s Metro Pictures Gallery starting September 23, the images “conflate the tropes of so-called high and low artistic techniques as they discuss notions of kitsch, cliché, and reproduction.” Also, they’re just damn fun! Enjoy.

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Chances are, when an art world big shot dabbles in cover design, something curious happens. Last year, Superflat art superstar Takashi Murakami covered POP Magazine, flinging a 28-year-old Britney Spears back into a school daze à la fuzzy lightning and manga-inspired styling. It was very awkward, yet gloriously so. Even though Damien Hirst can’t ever resist slapping his “signature” butterflies on everything, this year he had said “signature” butterfly tattooed on a most intimate region of a model volunteer for Garage Magazine. From vintage Dalí Vogue work to Chris Ware’s critical, brilliant and ultimately rejected Fortune cover, here are just some of the arty covers out there for you to flip through. Happy browsing!

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Our recent author-on-author, filmmaker-on-filmmaker and musician-on-musician insults have proved that creative folk are only human, and occasionally enjoy a good rip on their industry compatriots. Artists are no different, albeit they do it a bit differently. What they lack in media exposure, they make up in specifics, attacking “sickly” lines and “filthy” shades or, like Salvador Dalí, outright making up verbs like “outuglying” to drive their insults. Naturally, a good portion of these revolve around artists cutting down each others’ relevancy — yesterday’s Renaissance “daubers” are today’s graffiti “toys.” Looks like the battle of egos will never go away. (Oh, good!) Here are 30 harshest historical and contemporary artist-on-artists insults. We’d love to hear yours in the comments.

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The rise and fall of the mass-produced hit — be it movie, song, or movie star — is a phenomenon unique to the last century. Nowhere has this cycle been more palpable over the past two decades than in the music industry, which, as detailed by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, in his book The Long Tail, “perfected the process of manufacturing blockbusters. The resounding commercial success of teen pop — from Britney Spears to the Backstreet Boys — showed that the business had its finger firmly on the pulse of American youth culture … their marketing departments could now predict and create demand with scientific precision.”

Then came the burst of dot-com bubble, rise of Napster, and peer-to-peer file trading networks. The fool-proof plan for creating a music mega-star began to splinter. Music moguls poured millions into lawsuits but the tide of music culture had long since turned, leaving executives disillusioned and bitter with the industry they knew so well. One by one they paid their respects (however vehemently) and either adapted or deserted.

Last week, Tommy Mottola, former head of Sony Music Entertainment who signed and developed artists like Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Destiny’s Child, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, the Dixie Chicks, and Mark Anthony, announced he had officially set his sights on a new industry: art. Over the fourth of July holiday, he opened a gallery in East Hampton that boasted of a hodgepodge of blue-chip works by artists like Warhol, Picasso, de Kooning, Alex Katz, Leger, and Rauschenberg. Mottola told the Wall Street Journal that “there’s never been a serious gallery out here in the Hamptons … I thought, with my knowledge and experience, I’d like to try my hand at it.”

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Mike Leavitt has a giant Art Army. Hand-crafted from scratch out of 20 to 30 custom-made parts, each lil famous artist busts out with physical likeness and personal aesthetic sensibility. His grinning Jeff Koons is karmically turning into a big balloon animal. Matthew Barney is in full-on Cremaster Cycle mode, Takashi Murakami is mid-metamorphosis into a psychotic Kawaii toon, and Julian Schnabel comes with a removable ceramic plate halo. And those are just his freshest four!

The Seattle-based proud Pratt drop-out is having a solo show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery later this year. Meanwhile, enjoy Ron English a-clowning, Banksy a-pranking, and Damien Hirst getting sliced.

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