Damien Hirst
Is there life after Gagosian?
For Damien Hirst, there may be. The answer will come momentarily, with the first-ever exhibition of his work in Istanbul, opening this Friday at Portakal Art and Culture House.
Not that the artist himself will benefit from the exhibition – the show of 31 spin paintings is entirely secondary market, culled from clients in London and Switzerland, according to Maya Portakal, great-granddaughter of the company’s founder, Yervant Portakal, who established the company as an auction house in 1914. (Portakal now also offers private sales and stages the occasional sales exhibition, such as this one.)
Neither Hirst nor Gagosian was involved in creating the upcoming show, though Maya Portakal is quick to assure that most of the paintings come originally from Gagosian or White Cube, Hirst’s London gallery. Indeed, a Gagosian spokesperson said that the gallery only heard about the exhibition yesterday – five days before the scheduled opening.
In a city where works by internationally-recognized artists are rare and, for the most part, take place only in museums, not commercial spaces, news of the Hirst event has received widespread attention – and equally as much speculation. Some dealers, already nervous about the infiltration of the Turkish art market by foreign giants like Marlborough and Lehmann-Maupin, have feared that the exhibition signaled the first footsteps of a Gagosian invasion (they’ll be pleased to learn otherwise). And Turkish art critics, attending a recent congress of the International Association of Art Critics, ridiculed not just Hirst, but his admirers along with him. Even more, when asked for her views on the exhibition, Milliyet art critic Aysegul Sonmez, replied, “That the pieces are on display in an auction house gallery is really very convenient for Hirst, who as an artist is the symbol of the current cruel culture industry, of how art is more attached and addicted to speculation and auction houses.”
Ouch.
Collectors, for their part, also seem skeptical: said one – among the few Turkish collectors who also buy non-Turkish art — “I’m not even planning to attend the show, darlin’.” Can Elgiz, however, owner of the Museum Elgiz and the first Turkish collector to buy international contemporary art on a large scale, does plan to stop by and have a look, says his wife, Sevda. But Can Elgiz can rarely be kept away from an exhibition of this magnitude, wherever it takes place. Whether he will buy or not is an entirely different question.
But at least one dealer (who asked not to be named) thinks the show will be popular among Turkish art lovers – if not actual collectors. “Turkish people love kitsch,” she said.
Ouch again.
So whether, in other words, Istanbul can save the Hirst market – with or without a Gagosian connection – remains unclear, at least until the show ends; but what is certain is that a Damien Hirst exhibition in Istanbul may in some ways save the Turkish art market. Far too long confined to its own production, provincialized as much by galleries as by museums, Turkey’s art scene has only recently started to branch out to explore and embrace international contemporary art. It often strikes me that the vast majority of the country’s artists I’ve spoken with have never actually seen a Warhol, a Hirst, a Rothko, let alone a Picasso, a Titian, a Rembrandt. (Not only does the art not come here to Turkey, but artists themselves have a difficult time obtaining visas to Europe to view the collections of museums there.) Is it any wonder, then, that much of the art here (though certainly not all) is purely decorative and often gimmicky, having little to do with what the artist Richard Hambleton once brilliantly termed “the continuum of art history”?
Collectors, naturally, have similarly suffered – despite the fact that, by and large, they have an easier time traveling abroad, able as they are to demonstrate a reliable source of income on visa applications (something artists can rarely provide); occasional travel abroad isn’t really quite enough. The result is a simplicity in the art scene here, where both the collections and the art itself largely lack the depth and complexity – for better and for worse – one finds in America and Europe. It is entirely localized, with rules and values and aesthetics of its own.
For a while, it worked; but it’s now straining at the seams, bursting to find new ground and to become part of the larger, more adventurous and multifarious world of international art. If this exhibition – alluring as much in aesthetics (what’s not to like about spin paintings?) as in market cachet – can help open minds and doors and talents among Turkey’s artists and collectors, then all the better for it.
Tags: Aysegul Sonmez, Damien Hirst, Gagosian, Istanbul, Istanbul Art Scene, Maya Portakal, Portakal, White Cube
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Will Hirst save the Turkish market? What he will do is drive the already inflated prices even higher. The art market in Istanbul is still trying to find its inner compass on pricing, but the balloon of the past five years, together with an incredibly robust national economy, have driven it to levels that are almost unsustainable for local collectors.
I must take issue with a couple of statements you make in the last few paragraphs.
1) Many Turkish artists have been able to, in the last few decades, leave Turkey and go to Europe for their education, particularly to London and Berlin. At this point, they are still able to flow freely across the border, and some have homes abroad.
2) You can find Picassos, Monets, and Rembrandts, and more, in the museums. True, you won’t find that market level for sale in Istanbul.
3) The annual Contemporary Istanbul is an enormous art fair every Nov/Dec that that displays at least 40% international, and pays attention to under-the-radar countries like Iran, Hungary, and Bulgaria. http://www.contemporaryistanbul.com/
I’m not paid by the above to say these things. I’m a free-lance cultural journalist living in Istanbul and I write for an English-language newspaper here.
(I see that you’ve written a whole series on the Contemporary Istanbul, so that’s not news to you.)
Thanks for your remarks, Alexandra. And you’re right, I have been writing about Contemporary Istanbul and following the Istanbul art scene for some ten years now, so I am well aware of a lot of this.
Just to address a couple of points:
1. Artists do go abroad to study, but they are limited in traveling abroad as tourists; there’s obviously a different visa issue involved between tourism and study. I’ve spoken with many dealers and artists who bemoan the problems artists have getting into many European countries.
2. I have yet to find a Picasso or Rembrandt in a Turkish museum. There are temporary exhibitions — generally of lower-quality material, like the Monet show at Sabançi in November — but there are no museum collections, to my knowledge, that include such works. Even Elgiz doesn’t have a Picasso. And again, you won’t find it in the galleries.
3. Istanbul Contemporary only recently — in the past two years, really — involved galleries of global standing. I’m not talking about galleries in Iran or Bulgaria or Poland; I’m talking about galleries like Leila Heller from NYC, Marlborough, White Cube, and so on – international galleries who show artists of international stature, not local ones. I would also have to say that while Istanbul Contemporary has grown exponentially in recent years, it is not exactly “enormous’ by art fair standards. Hopefully, some correction in the Turkish market will allow it to become more significant, however, sometime soon.
Recently, SaltGalata had one Picasso, in their temporary “İstanbul Eindhoven SALTVanAbbe: Modern Times,” exhibit, which closed on Dec. 30. At the beginning of 2012 a Dali exhibit of his early sketches was mounted at Tophane’s Mimar Sinan space. In 2009, Pera Museum had a fairly extensive Chagall exhibit.
Which is basically what I said. In 2003, it was Picasso. And so on. You will not find these works in any permanent collection in Istanbul. The closest is the Elgiz Museum, which is fabulous, but it’s not enough. I’m not making this up. Artists have expressed their frustration to me about this over and over again.
So if you have not seen a Picasso, your art is second-rate? Himmmmm…
There is some brilliantly wonderful art in Istanbul. There is also some very provincial art. Knowing about art is not the same as seeing it, but seeing the best works by the best artists in history should be something every artist wants to do — and something every artist can do.
[...] Istanbul has been a hot topic in the arts for awhile now (with the moneyed Turkish art lovers and collectors ever more enthusiastic to buy works) and Hirst is a name everyone loves to hate and discuss. As we are still savoring the Hirst v. Gagosian divorce, an exhibition of Hirst’s works opened in Istanbul last Friday at Portakal Auction House, established in 1914. First solo exhibition of Hirst in Istanbul. You might think that Hirst had something to do with this ‘expansion’, but all works on view are secondary market coming from private collections in Europe. Perhaps these owners are following caution “If you own a Hirst, sell now!” as such opinion continues to be voiced. We found this interesting article on ArtInfo; starting off with the question is there life after Gagosian? Read it here. [...]