BlogBack: Wadworth Atheneum Staffer on Hirst’s Shark

Stephen Persing, an administrative assistant in the director’s office at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, responds to NY Times Editorial Snarks the Shark:
I have to disagree with you regarding Damien Hirst, and especially the shark. To me, contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum has always seemed the poor cousin, perhaps because it is just one facet of the museum, whereas there are whole institutions devoted to modern and contemporary art in the area. I would like to see the shark end up somewhere unexpected, where it is not just one more masterpiece on the walking tour.
Mr. [Steve] Cohen [the collector who owns Hirst’s shark] lives in Connecticut: Why not a museum there? I ask this not just because I work at a Connecticut museum, but because the shark would do far more to benefit to a smaller institution than it can do for the Met.
And about Hirst in general—I love the shark, though I regret that it had to die for the artwork. For me, the more explicit the message in Hirst’s work, the more tacky and less interesting it is. His recent pickled animals, in crucifixion scenes and St. Sebastian poses, are overblown and trite. The skull is not just a vanitas, it’s a Vegas vanitas. You come away hoping for more than the artwork can give. The shark succeeds because of its plain presentation. Glitz is hard for an artist to handle, especially an artist of limited talent, like Damien Hirst.