ARTBITCH: THE THINGS ARTISTS THINK AND SAY
The art-world insults you weren’t supposed to hear
by KOD Staff
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and the art world is no exception. Evolving from the elitist salons of 1920’s Paris into the celebrity crazed art fairs of today, the art world has always been a hotbed of artistic tension and rivalry, with super star artists and their dealers sharpening their tongues and going for the gold dollar signs.
Given the industry’s politics, feuds were always destined to follow. From Damien Hirst to Andy Warhol, we recall some of our favourite artistic insults:
Feuding YBA'S: Tracey Emin and Jake Chapman
Jake Chapman on Tracey Emin: “I bet she can’t even say academician”.
Tracey Emin on Jake Chapman: “I just think it’s all a bit sad that Jake has to fill his head up with thoughts about me. Why doesn’t he just get on with his work?"
In 2006 Banksy defaced Robbo's well known 1985 graffiti work, sparking a street war.
Banksy upon meeting Robbo: “Never heard of you.”
Andy Warhol on Jasper Johns: “Oh, I think he’s great. He makes such great lunches".
Willem de Kooning to Andy Warhol (at a party): “You’re a killer of art, you’re a killer of beauty, you’re even a killer of laughter. I can’t bear your work!”
William Powhida: Some Recent Art Villains, 2015
William Powhida on Takashi Murakami: “…that hack Murakami trying to consume the market whole and ended up designing handbags…”
Joseph Beuys: Das Schweigen von Marcel Duchamp wird überwertet, 1964
Joseph Beuys on Marcel Duchamp: “The silence of Marcel Duchamp is overrated. It has become the territory of a few intellectuals, far from the life of people.”
Frida Kahlo with lover Josep Bartolí
Frida Kahlo on the European Surrealists: “They are so damn ‘intellectual’ and rotten that I can’t stand them anymore… I’d rather sit on the floor in the market of Toluca and sell tortillas, than have anything to do with those ‘artistic’ bitches of Paris.”
Damien Hirst with a Butterfly from his installation "In and Out of Love" 1991.
Linder Sterling on Damien Hirst: “Dead butterflies, cows, horses, humans, sheep, and sharks — it reads like the inventory of a funerary Noah. How many halved calves suspended in formaldehyde does the world need? To my way of thinking, none.”
On the firing line: Salvador Dali attacks Jackson Pollock
Salvador Dalí on Jackson Pollock’s style: “…The indigestion that goes with fish soup…”
