I love and hate Damien Hirst in equal portions. I love the marketing genius that the man is, but I also dislike him for similar reasons as he has made art all about business. Only a (starving) fool would ignore business altogether in art, but I still find myself clinging to a romantic art that is above money and press releases. There’s all kinds of art though, so I probably admire Hirst more than I dislike him.

The British artist is now teaming up with Levi’s Jeans to do a limited edition collection of t-shirts and jeans. The Damien Hirst X Levi’s® collection uses well known Hirst themes like spots, skulls, butterflies and his spin paintings. The prices start at £55 for tees and £150 for jeans, so now everyone can own a Damien Hirst.. kind of.

Here’s a short Damien Hirst interview about the Levi’s collection..

1. How did the original collaboration between you and Levi’s® come about?

I’ve always worn Levi’s® and I saw a collection that (designer) Adrian Nyman made using Warhol’s art and I loved it so much I bought the whole collection. Adrian heard about it and contacted me and asked if I’d like to work with him, the Warhol estate and Levi’s®, and of course I jumped at the chance.

2. Why did you decide to partner with Levi’s® to create another Damien Hirst X Levi’s® limited-edition collection?

Because I really enjoyed the experience of working with Adrian and Levi’s® and loved the clothes.

3. What was your inspiration for this collection?

I loved the idea of art you can wear.

4. What was the inspiration and meaning behind your iconic imagery of the skull, spots and butterfly?

I live in Mexico and I love the way they celebrate all the bad and good aspects of life there. In life we are here for a good time, not a long time and I hope the imagery communicates that.

5. Do you have any favourite pieces or items in the collection you are most excited about?

I love it all.

6. Have you ever provided design inspiration for a clothing collection before?

I painted heavy metal album covers on schoolmate’s denim jackets when I was at school.

7. Have you seen people out and about in pieces from your Damien Hirst X Levi’s® limited-edition collection? Do you like the idea that people can now “wear your art”?

I tried to sign someone’s t shirt I saw in a club but they wouldn’t let me because they didn’t believe I was Damien Hirst, funny huh?

8. What similarities or differences do you find between expressing yourself creatively through art versus fashion?

I don’t see a difference really, anything done well is art, but this way a lot of people get to own my stuff and in a not too precious way.

>> Damien Hirst News

The Damien Hirst circus is over and was a great success. The first night of the Hirst auction raised about 70 million pounds and the second day raised 40,919,700 GBP, which works out to be about $200 million USD in 2 days.

I don’t care what we think of his art.. love it or hate it.. Damien Hirst is a genius! He makes Andy Warhol look like a hippy with no job or credit card.

Warhol said “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” If Andy was right, Damien Hirst is the greatest artist of all time as he is without doubt the best business artist alive.

I usually only get 15 or 20 people each day looking for “Hirst” on Art News Blog, but on the 16th of September there were 515 people searching for the British artist. Quite a few searched for “Hurst” too. There was even a few people looking for Damien Hearst.
>> Sotheby’s Art Auctions, Damien Hirst News

Damien Hirst may have a pile of unsold artworks sitting in a gallery and Robert Hughes may think his work is “tacky,” but there’s still plenty of rich collectors willing to bet their millions on the British artist. Financial crisis and all, Hirst still sets records.

The first night of the much talked about Damien Hirst auction (Beautiful Inside my Head Forever) made about £70 million, which is 8 million pounds above the high estimate by Sotheby’s.

Traditional galleries of major artists worldwide must be feeling a little nervous after the Hirst auction success. Very few artists could pull off something as grand as Damien Hirst, but I don’t think we have seen the last of artists dealing directly with auction houses.

Here’s a few lots from the Hirst auction..

The Kingdom (lot 5, Evening sale)
tiger shark, glass, steel, silicone and formaldehyde
solution with steel plinth
214 by 383.6 by 141.8cm.
executed in 2008
Sotheby’s Estimate
£ 4,000,000 – 6,000,000
€ 5,060,000-7,590,000
US$ 7,900,000-11,850,000
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 9,561,250 GBP

The Golden Calf (lot 13, Evening Sale)
calf, 18 carat gold, glass, goldplated steel, silicone and
formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth
398.9 by 350.5 by 167.6cm
executed in 2008
Sotheby’s Estimate
£ 8,000,000-12,000,000
€ 10,120,000-15,180,000
US$ 15,800,000-23,690,000
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 10,345,250 GBP

Aurothioglucose (lot 7, Evening Sale)
household gloss and enamel
paint on canvas
172.7 by 274.3cm.
executed in 2008
Sotheby’s Estimate
£ 400,000-600,000
€ 510,000-760,000
US$ 790,000-1,190,000
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: 668,450 GBP

>> Sotheby’s Art Auctions, Damien Hirst News

I find it interesting that a backlog of about 200 works by Damien Hirst can be news. He’s the closest thing we have to a Britney Spears in the art world, with the media looking for any excuse to publish a story on the man (I realize I do it too). All the art world needs now is some art celebrity sex tapes and some police mug shots of artists that have misbehaved. I would probably subscribe to an art gossip magazine if it was cheap.

Anyway, what was I talking about? I have the flu and I’m taking lots of evil tablets from big pharmaceutical companies, so sticking to the point can be challenging.

The Times Online has reported on Hirst’s “mountainous backlog” of more than 200 works by the artist and his production line sitting in the White Cube gallery in London.

“The items include 34 butterfly paintings dating back to 2005; six medicine cabinets with price tags of up to £2.5m and a batch of 25 fly and resin coated skulls. The “Hirst mountain” held by the White Cube gallery, and detailed in next month’s issue of The Art Newspaper, shows the challenges of selling mass-produced art.” Times Online

In a later Bloomberg report, White Cube’s Jay Jopling said that their stock level for Hirst was normal and the gallery is NOT sitting on a “mountain” of Hirst works.

Jopling said “The appetite for Damien’s art is such that we never have enough and I’m always keen to have as much work on consignment as possible. The market for Hirst was strong and suggestions to the contrary were based on redundant documents.”

It’ll be interesting to see how much more we hear of Damien Hirst as his big auction at Sotheby’s draws closer. I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t make the 6 o’clock news.

Update: There’s an interesting Damien Hirst interview (video) with Tim Marlow on the Sotheby’s website here.
>> Damien Hirst News