Some – like Tracy Emin, Damian Hurst and GIlbert&George- have been in ad business for while. Their styles are so distinctive you know them immediately like a pack of Persil. They have mastered the art of effective branding – with “added value” prices to match
At modern art shows the same ‘big’ themes come up over and over again- here are three you can rely on.
1) The artist getting in touch with his/her inner child – Childhood is a time of both maximum innocence and psychological damage-or both. That tension is makes this a rich theme to explore
2) Wearing masks– a very ancient theme as it liberates the individual to take on different identities and or behave as badly with as they like. In films people always get murdered at masked balls. Venice loves masks-and is the original city of hidden dangers. Sadistic sex often involves masks- anyway you get the point
3) Consumerism=polution
Today there is just too much pollution . It is covering our beaches , making our rivers poisonous and air cancer inducing.
Our Madmen era pleasures in consumerism-those Andy Warhol soup cans seem so innocent now-have been undermined by the smelly decaying byproducts of our obsession with economic growth. Asia ( for which read China) is the epicentre of this collective act of greed & desire driven self-distruction. Hence these images
