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September 2, 2008
Art News of the Ick
I just don't get the logistics of this deeply creepy art sale from the article. Follow the link if you like, but there's no picture.
Man sells his tattoo to German collector for €150,000A Swiss man has sold an elaborate Virgin Mary tattoo on his back to a German collector, with the understanding it can be exhibited three times yearly, a Zurich gallery said Monday.
But . . .
The extraordinary transaction - which gallery owner Jutta Nexdorf claims is the first of its kind - fetched €150,000 ($219,000), with the main stipulation being that the 35-hour work can be removed from the bearer’s skin upon death and handed to its owner.The owner will also be allowed to sell the tattoo, created by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. It is notable for depicting the mother of Jesus with a lifeless skull.
Proceeds from the sale are being shared among the gallery, tattoo bearer Tim Steiner and Delvoye, Nexdorf told AFP. The tattoo will go on show for the first time next week in Singapore and Shanghai.
So is the - um - current bearer of the tattoo on the verge of death? Or will he be flown to Singapore and Shanghai for exhibition and then appear thrice yearly until death, at which point the tattoo will be removed and may be resold?
And, sad to say, is this really the first time that tattoos have been collected? We've all seen horrific photos from the Nazi era. Perhaps the novelty is that the proceeds are being shared?
I understand the price - the artist is Wim Delvoye, big-name conceptual artist. If you follow the wikipedia link, you'll learn that he's been doing tattoos for some time (I hadn't read about those before). Here are some of his tattoos on pigs.
You'd think it would be easier, cheaper, and quicker (in the sense that the tattoo will be removed after death) to buy one of these; I suppose the collector wants human skin, though. Ick.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at September 2, 2008 8:09 AM
Comments
There was a Roald Dahl short story, "Skin," based on this idea. In it, a young tattoo artist encourages a young painter to paint a picture on his back and then tattoo over it. The painter becomes famous. Years later the old tattoo artist happens upon an exhibition of the painter's work and decides to reveal his tattoo. The tattoo is "sold" to a man who wants him to make shirtless appearances at his hotel. The end of the story reveals that an unusual, previously unknown painting by the artist suddenly shows up on the art market; the reader is left to speculate what became of the old tattoo artist.
Posted by: Lara at September 2, 2008 10:52 AM
Obviously it fetched this kind of price because of the artist. Delvoye is known for his tattoos on pigs, his gothic concrete mills and excavators, his x-ray pornographic stained-glass church windows, and of course his "cloaca":
http://www.cloaca.be/
Posted by: Prlwytzkowski at September 3, 2008 10:53 AM