Thursday, August 28, 2008

Marc Quinn and his Golden Idol

Detail of "Siren"-- British Museum/PA Wire

If you want to make headlines with your art you need only knock on the door of celebrity-- or so it seems. We have seen this time and time again in recent years. Since I’ve been cynical of Daniel Edwards work involving celebrities in the past I feel that I must stick to my guns and cast an eye at Marc Quinn’s most recent work. Quinn has created a sculpture of British supermodel Kate Moss-- again.
This is not the first time that Marc Quinn has used Kate Moss as his muse. In 2006, he unveiled his Sphinx, a painted bronze statue of Moss that caused some controversy due to the provocative yoga pose of the statue. The end result then was the same as now-- headlines for the artist. Quinn’s new sculpture of Kate Moss, titled Siren, is a 110-pound statue worth over $2 million in solid gold. Detailed images of the statue have yet to be made public. However, some sources have suggested that the statue of Moss involves the same edgy pose as Sphinx-- why break from a successful formula, right?
When asked about Siren, Quinn stated, "I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment, but even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image.". Maybe Kate Moss is his ideal of beauty? She certainly is not mine. Maybe the next thing to do is for certain aspects of the art world to go beyond bling and celebrity. Britney Spears pregnant on all fours as imagined by Daniel Edwards, a diamond skull thanks to Damien Hirst, and now Kate Moss made out of gold by Marc Quinn! I don’t think I can handle much more of this meshing of celebrity and bling. What say you?
Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Kate Moss even a top model at this point? I think this guy is stuck in the 90s. What a waste of gold and money. His work had meaning in the past. Now it is just as shallow as Moss. Is that the point?

Anonymous said...

Merit is not based on materials alone. I know hundreds of sculptors who would be able to create a life like image of anyone but because they don't have access to that much gold they will never get the recognition they deserve.

Mark Staff Brandl said...

Good post, bad art.