12ozProphet

I got an email from 100artworks this morning about a British teen Cartrain, begging the blogosphere to publish his story of a beef he is having with artworld superstar Damien Hirst. I’m not entirely sure I’m not be used as a pawn here. But its an entertaining story even if its real or fake so here it goes. I also don’t know which of them comes off worse.

Apparently the kid was selling collaged posters and prints through 100artworks that incorporated images of Hirst’s work, which got the 16 year old slapped with a lawsuit. The kid retaliates with swiping a packet of pencils from Hirsts PHARMACY exhibit. Causing a blanketing of london with wnted posters for the missing pencils, apparently valued at £ 500,000.

From the Telegraph: “Cartrain then made a mock “wanted” posted that read: “For the safe return of Damien Hirst’s pencilers I would like my artworks back that DACS and Hirst took off me in November. It’s not a large demand… Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31 of July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned.”
But the stunt backfired when the antiques squad from the Metropolitan Police arrested the artist, informing him the pencils were worth £500,000 as part of the overall installation which was valued at £10 million.
Cartrain is now on bail until September 11, and if convicted, the incident will be one of the highest value modern art thefts in Britain.”

So the moral of the story is that the “street-art” world of the 21st century isn’t any different than the first generations of graffiti, biting a masters style deliberately is grounds for beef. Beef can make you famous. But the beatdown is probably not going to outlast the fame. Careers seem to be based on it more and more these days. So, 16 year olds around the planet, steal as much as you want. Your snot nosed self righteous ways might just make you rich and famous. My motto is always to innovate don’t imitate. Pay respect to those you learn from. In this case. Cartrain might learn a bit about litigation I suppose.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/artist-17-arrested-for-hirst-pencil-theft-1878057.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/6135963/Teenage-artist-arrested-for-stealing-pencils-from-Damien-Hirst.html