BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes

Subject: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:37 AM

A huge fire in a warehouse has destroyed many key works of modern British art, including Tracy Emin's "Loitering Within Tent" and Damien Hirst's "Sliced Wombat Enjoying the Ineffable Boredom of Contemplation". Britain's towns have become strange, silent places. An eerie calm prevails, only broken by the sound of muffled sobbing. Small groups of people huddle at street corners, ashen-faced, whispering words of support to their fellows. The sad piles of wilting flowers grow, stacked against the railing outside art galleries. It is going to be a long time before the nation can achieve closure, and move on from this communal outpouring of grief.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:43 AM

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:52 AM

Was the fire Art in itself? I can't wait to hear what Brian Sewell comes out with, the poor darlings must be close to tears.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:57 AM

It's the first time I've ever thought up a "wish list" of what I hoped was in that fire...well not really, but, yes, really.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:58 AM

art tresures my arse! it was all modern art shit.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:59 AM

anyway=Brian Sewell is a big puff, with a stupid voice.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:01 AM

I hope Homer's failed barbeque wasn't in amongst the "treasures"

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:02 AM

Let's be fair to Brian Sewell, I dont think he will joining in the mourning. Tracy Emin's not really his thing, I fancy.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:05 AM

Incidentally, why was all this stuff in a warehouse, rather than on display somewhere? Is it perhaps possible that nobody wanted to look at it?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:16 AM

At least Tracey Emin has got it in proportion: Emin: 'I'm more upset about kids being killed in Iraq'

Now I wonder how much they were insured for, and how that compares with what they'd have fetched in the market?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:26 AM

Congratulations, McGrath, on your ability to bring the Iraq war into a superficially unrelated thread. To balance the Iraq remark, Tracy Emin's just said on Radio 4 that it was like losing a member of the family, which strikes me as a more believable artist's reaction. (I rather like Tracy Emin's work actually, though I'm not averse to going for a cheap laugh at her expense).

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:28 AM

Yo Greg,
       If I don't change my bedding for 3months,then pooh in one corner of it, would you buy the bed off me for say......... 2000guineas?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:31 AM

the king is in the altogether, the altogether ...... British iconic art-or how you can fool some of the people some of the time, but Chares Saatchi most of the time.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Micca
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:32 AM

Oh look!!! the Emperors wardrobe has burned and all his fine clothes have been destroyed!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:35 AM

I'l start work on the mucky bed tonight.And for 2000guineas I'll even throw in TWO half hamsters in formaldehyde. Any takers? ( other than Charles Saatchi?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Hrothgar
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:42 AM

Some of you people lack proper feeling for and understanding of fine art.

For example, the Fire Event at Woodford Folk Festival is an art form. A fire in an art warehouse is not necessarily so.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:58 AM

treasure WHAT treasure.

TRacy Emin will probably declare the ruins as a work of art and sell it to Satchi for a small fortune after she pees on it.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Pied Piper
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:00 AM

Oh dear.
How sad.
What a pitty.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:08 AM

Some years ago an artist canned his ... well, excrement, and sold them as works of art. The sterilisation process was not perfect, so occassionally a can explodes, vastly increasing the value of the remaining works of art - 'art de merde' I believe it is called.

He died shortly thereafter, and now the cans are worth more than their weight in gold...

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:22 AM

I hope that the Damien Hirst wasn't overdone - just cooked a nice medium-rare - served with a piquant sauce - and two veg !

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:24 AM

BS, S and now 'art S'!

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: mooman
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:00 AM

What a pity. Never mind.

moo

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:06 AM

el ted, Oaklet might buy your sculpture "The Mucky Bed" if you knock the price down to £57.
J :0)

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:31 AM

57guineas and you're on. I went home this lunchtime and had a huge poo poo in my bed. Penny wasn't too pleased though, she had to shuufle over to her side out of my range.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:38 AM

I shouldn't think Tracey Emin was too worried as she'd already sold the stuff but it seems that the art shouldn't have been there anyway as the owners thought it was being stored in a secure place and not a lock-up on a trading estate.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:55 AM

Geez, them Brits don't understand Performance Art when they experience it.

An obvious case of Post-Modern deconstrutionist deconstruction, highlighting the transient nature of human aethestic creation pitted against the entropic nature of oxidationist deconstruction. I only wonder who the artist was -- undoubtedly an Immortal, whose name is destined to ring down the corridors of Time.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 May 04 - 01:32 PM

From the link above: "Charles Saatchi was left pondering an irreplaceable hole in his extensive private collection."

Do the English express themselves differently from Americans? LOL

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: GUEST,harlowpoet
Date: 27 May 04 - 02:34 PM

The Guardian(UK) mentioned the word priceless in its first report which was incorrect, as it all had a price.

Everyone made on the deal. Saatchi gets it back on the insurance, Hirst and co receive some more publicity, and we don't have to look at it, next time at the Tate.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 04 - 02:51 PM

it's not as if there arent more 'contemplative Wombats' ready to be posed & immortalized!

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 27 May 04 - 02:58 PM

And much of the insurance payout will go to the 'artists' to recreate their 'works'.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 May 04 - 03:20 PM

The shame is that it isn't just Saatchi's collection of crap art that's gone up in the Bonfire of the Vanities, amid general merriment - there are also a fair number of other paintings kept in teh warehouse that went up in flames, and some of those were a lot better. Ah well, every silver lining has a cloud.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 May 04 - 04:28 PM

Terry Allen has made fun of a similar event in TRUCKLOAD OF ART.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: ard mhacha
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:13 PM

Some swine beat me to it, just about the only good thing Stalin ever did was make a bonfire of all of The Soviet Unions modern art.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: GUEST,harlowpoet
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:19 PM

I've been pondering this tonight.

If you sell something, you have no right of say as to what happens to it, anymore than anything else you would sell.

You cannot claim any artistic exception to this, in fact it's worse, as you've sold your loving creation.

At least no-ones comparing it the Great Library at Alexandria which burnt down.

Though I wonder what happened to the library books still borrowed at the time?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Gareth
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:27 PM

Dammmn ! and when a strike by firefightes would be a social improvement the B****r's were at work !

Gsreth

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:43 PM

Actually Australia is working on leglislation to continue artists rights after sale - something about our indigenous population's contribution to the art world was some of the motivation behind that...

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 May 04 - 07:48 PM

If you sell something, you have no right of say as to what happens to it, anymore than anything else you would sell.

I don't think anyone can have absolute possession of a work of art, which would entitle them to destroy it on a whim.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 27 May 04 - 08:11 PM

Agree, Kevin, but only if it IS a work of art. And opinions will vaery on this, of course

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: GUEST,harlowpoet
Date: 27 May 04 - 10:39 PM

A bout of insomnia brings me back.

Such a rule as not having absolute possession, would be impossible to manage, due to the subjective nature of what is claimed as art.

Also a landscape gardener could claim the same rights.

Everyone was born equal under the sun, why should there be special rights?

Michaelangelo never needed them, nor did Picaasso.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 04 - 11:36 PM

... but he got paid, unlike some modern artists, especially musicians...

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Blackcatter
Date: 27 May 04 - 11:39 PM

OK - I get it - this is another Cricket thread - right!?!

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Gurney
Date: 28 May 04 - 03:36 AM

This is no tragedy, this is an opportunity.

I wonder where I left that 6" paintbrush.
I wonder if Cholmondley the chimp is still about. Was that his name? Not a bad little painter.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 28 May 04 - 03:44 AM

So apparently one of the artists who had work in that warehouse is sueing. So it begins...xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: el ted
Date: 28 May 04 - 04:12 AM

Well it took a few practise chops, but I successfully split a hamster in two last night, at the eighteenth attempt. I cleaned out "pets r us " of their entire stock of hamsters but it was worth it! I didn't have any formadahyde to preserve them in so I used vinegar ( a nice local twist there i think)
    So, what am I bid for this homage to Damien? Shall we start the bidding at 15,000 guineas?

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 28 May 04 - 05:24 AM

Tracy Emming is on the wireless now.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 28 May 04 - 05:26 AM

I forgot to say which station she's on, it's The Home Service, [92-94 FM].

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 28 May 04 - 05:42 AM

Ted, good tip when slicing rodents-freeze them first, and whilst they are still frozen, run then through a band saw set on a slow speed.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Betsy
Date: 28 May 04 - 05:47 AM

Good riddance to a pile of shite - manufactured by bluffers,conmen and women and given a price tag by an arsehole who hasn`t got an ounce of social responsibility. Good riddance to bad rubbish as an old schoolteacher of mine used to say.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 May 04 - 06:00 AM

But it wasn't just Saatchi's selection that was burnt in this warehouse. A mass of real paintings went up as well, notably about fifty by the late Patrick Heron - here's a link to some of his work on a Tate Gallery site. These aren't rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: British Art treasures burnt to ashes
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 28 May 04 - 06:03 AM

You're right, McGrath! It's a shame these were burnt. I now realize that there were a lot in there besides the Tracy Emin/Damian Hurst-type crap. For those others, I'm truly sorry..xx..e