The Value of Eccentricity
The article presented on “artcyclopedia” comments on the “Sensation Exhibition” held in London at the Royal Academy of Art in 1997, and again in New York three years later.
The article begins by stating that the exhibition was a source of either “intense controversy or blatant hype …. but they certainly succeeded in sparking some of the most serious debates on the role of art in society in recent years”
This statement is accompanied with an example of the controversy and hype surrounding the work of artist Marcus Harvey, whose portrait of a notorious child murderer created with hundreds of children's' handprints. The painting was physically attacked at least twice (once with an egg, and another with ink). The article, playing up to the hype surrounding this, includes the method Harvey used in conserving the work after the attacks of cleaning the painting with an abrasive scouring pad, which undoubtedly would further damage the work and therefore its monetary value.
The article also notes that the exhibition created public anger when it arrived in New York three years after the show premiered in London.
The article concludes by reminding the public that the exhibition of works are owned by the advertising “authority” Charles Saatchi, and therefore any hype or controversy around the exhibition should be seen as a form of advertising, and that `Sensation' “brought in millions of dollars in revenue, and generated many more millions worth of free publicity for Saatchi and his group of artists”.