Is Damien Hirst’s trove of ‘antiquities’ brought up from the sea-bed just a shipload of crock, or is it an historically accurate, if anarchistic, tribute to marine archaeology?
Roll up, roll up for the greatest show on earth. As Venice slowly sinks beneath the waves, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, 189 of them in all, have surfaced in artist Damien Hirst’s latest, boldest extravaganza, which has been a decade in the making, at the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.
The bad boy of Brit Art invites us on a voyage of discovery to gawp at a 2000-year-old lost cargo once shipped on the Apistos (the Unbelievable) by the powerful Roman art collector Aulus Calidius Amotan, whose costly write-off would become enshrined in the Dinner Conversations of Apollonius of Samos. Hirst’s supposed sponsorship of the wreck’s salvage off East Africa is given a patina of real time and place through moody underwater video and stills tracking the artworks as found from the sea floor to the surface.
Big, brash and splendidly over the top, with a creative price tag exceeding $50 million, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable confuses art critics like no other mega-show of recent years. Some can’t see beyond what they judge to be its offensive scale and cost. Others accuse Hirst of conceit, glowing in acclaim for art that was actually made by a team of artisans. It’s as wrong, they say,
treasures Is Damien Hirst’s trove of ‘antiquities’ brought up from the sea-bed just a shipload of crock, or is it an historically accurate, if anarchistic, tribute to marine archaeology? Sean A Kingsley tries to fathom the answer Roll up, roll up for the greatest show on earth. As Venice slowly sinks beneath the waves, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, 189 of them in all, have surfaced in artist Damien Hirst’s latest, boldest extravaganza, which has been a decade in the making, at the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.
This story is from the September/October 2017 Volume 28 Number 5 edition of Minerva.
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This story is from the September/October 2017 Volume 28 Number 5 edition of Minerva.
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ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM
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SHAPING THE WORLD: SCULPTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO NOW
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“I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood.”
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The ancient Greeks thought much about the dead – how their remains should be disposed of, how their spirits might be summoned, how malignant they could be if unavenged. Classicist David Stuttard brings us face to face with the Greek dead.
INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
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Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
CUZCO 'CENTRE AND HEAD OF ALL THE LAND'
Cuzco was the heart of the vast Inca empire, but all changed in the 16th century when the capital was conquered by Spanish invaders. Michael J Schreffler investigates the Inca city, and how it went from the centre of one empire to the periphery of another.
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A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.
Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art
John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
