Damien Hirst's Shark at the Met

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This fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present one of the most arresting works of art by the British artist Damien Hirst: "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." Originally created in 1991, the piece consists of a preserved shark in a tank of formaldehyde. But the shark that will appear at the Met is the second version of this work: The first began to decompose within the tank. Mr. Hirst then recreated the work with a second shark, a 13-foot tiger shark preserved professionally for the future.

Mr. Hirst's shark — on a three-year loan from its owner, Steven A. Cohen — raises question about death and life, but its history also poses issues about the permanence of art. Can a work be so easily reproduced? And if so, what happens to its value?

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[seanalienko]

i have seen live sharks, dead sharks at various aquariums. , really, put anything in a gallery, it instantly becomes a piece of artwork.

[henrydu2003]

I rather go to a aquarium

[arvumbrasas]

@seanalienko yes, that's the point, but there is agreat challenge of putig something to the gallery, please go tomorrow and try to put something :) Wonder what kind of results you going to get.

[thechannelers]

"its an amazing work of art"... give me a break. Museums have been doing this for decades. This installation belongs at seaworld not at an art gallery. The curator has to say this drivel because it has cost so much of the galleries money. Again this is a brand, not an artistic revelation - and not an original brand at that.

[CWoodbridge]

@YoungBL I can appreciate art, but your comment here is pretentious crap. So what if someone prefers to go to an aquarium than the MET, just because a person is interested by different things, doesn't mean that they lack the intellect that you have.

And belittling people on the internet who are less eloquently spoken than yourself is the lowest form of wit. It's called "being a cunt".

[YoungBL]

@henrydu2003 "I radder doe to dah aquarium"

You're a moron. You'd obviously rather go to the aquarium than the MET.

[MrStupidfag]

@smokesomelissy shut it

[smokesomelissy]

did he buy the shark just to kill it? thats so horrible. why is that irrelevant to all of you? he killed an innocent animal and you guys are calling it art? are you fucking kidding me

[DarkAngelEU]

I agree with too many things being art these days, but this IS art.

[chaosproduction]

@pudgimelon Yes, well I was never talking directly about Hirst. I was focusing more on your comment about him getting help, and how you think conceptual art isn't art (if that is what you were previously trying to get at). I'm aware he plagiarizes, I don't respect him for that.

[pudgimelon]

@chaosproduction "forgetting the few claims of plagiarism"??

Seriously? This guy is such a fake that he not only copies other artists, he even copies himself! It's like those "painting mill masters" who hire other artists to paint-by-numbers duplicate versions of their "masterpieces" (and then the "master" signs them).

This is not art, it is cult of celebrity at its worst. Heck, he even buys his own pieces just to pump up the value of his "name". Architects ARE artists, this guy is a FRAUD