– Damien Hirst is an artist who has always tested how far he can push the boundaries of the art market, says Cecilia Blomberg, art critic and reporter at Swedish Radio.
The project "The beautiful paintings" is based on the works of Hirst from the 90s. Then he painted paintings by standing on a ladder and dripping paint onto a rotating canvas.
Now the technology is much less sticky and the paintings are instead made by buyers who have had to use an AI tool where they themselves chose color, size and shape. Damien Hirst stands for the idea and a handwritten signature.
The idea is the artwork
In nine days, Hirst sold over 5,500 paintings for a total of $20.9 million. The buyers, in turn, could choose to receive the artwork in physical form, as an NFT or as both.
But the question is who will actually be the creator, Damien Hirst, the AI tool or the buyers themselves who got to design the paintings?
According to Blomberg, the artwork lies primarily in the concept rather than in the finished paintings.
"If you're going to be art historical, you have to go back to Marcel Duchamp and the idea of what a work of art is. "The institutional concept of art": If the art world has defined it as art, it is the idea itself that is art and Damien Hirst has created the idea. For me, he's the one who owns the artwork," she says.
The name that sells
Blomberg believes that it is primarily the artist's name that sells, rather than the AI technology itself.
"It seems that people are happily paying a lot of money to get a 'Damien Hirst AI painting'.
Later in the development of AI, however, she believes that the issue of author may become more complex.
"The big question in the future is whether there will be AI artists who have no creators behind them? It's much more diffuse and I definitely think the art world will continue to explore that area.
Hear Cecilia Blomberg in the video below.
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Who will be the creator of Damien Hirst's AI artwork? Hear answers from Cecilia Blomberg, reporter and art critic at Swedish Radio. Photo: SVT