There’s no getting away from the art world’s desire to create the next best thing. The latest invention took place on Valentine’s Day, when Sotheby’s New York organized a red auction to support the AIDS research and relief in Africa.
The event, scheduled just after the New York fashion week, was organized by an unlikely couple in Damien Hirst and U2’s Bono Vox, who worked together with the assistance of Gagosian to bring together the most challenging artists around – Tracey Emin, Matthew Barney, Georg Baselitz, Cecily Brown, Douglas Gordon, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, Gary Hume, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer and Jeff Koons among others – and the art and entertainment jet setters like collectors Abi Rosen and Tico Mugrabi, former Guggenheim and now Sotheby’s Lisa Dennison, Roberta Armani, Christy Turlington (all in red), Stella Schnabel and Helena Christensen.
One of the 83 donated lots was made by Japanese art master Takashi Murakami, who replied to Bono and Hirst’s invitation by creating a circular piece, a link to the Zen philosophy of the full circle.
This strange night at Sotheby’s – which was closed by Bono singing Revolution before presenting his own interpretation of The Beatles’ All you need is love (“All you need is Hirst, all you need is Hirst, all you need is Hirst, Hirst is all you need!”) – totaled the unbelievable amount of $42 million.
