An assortment of Kate Moss pictures, wherein she is modelled in the likeness of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe series, has sold for $100,000 USD.
Whether or not the above graffiti artist (Banksy) made more of a killing than the $4,000 apiece toast portraits by Lennie Payne remains to be seen, but a new artist and his toaster are raising the stakes. Until October 28th, London’s Air Gallery is hosting Dermot Flynn’s celebrity portraits made of toast and Marmite* include Jude Law (right), James Blunt, Simon Cowell, Pete Doherty, Victoria Beckham, and Charlotte Church. Surprisingly, Kate Moss is not said to be immortalized in the Marmate collection.
Miss Moss needn’t get her lingerie ruffled, however, since she’s served as the muse for several artists to make far too much cash. Lucian Freud’s painting of a pregnant and nude Kate (below right) sold for $7.28 million USD. Stella Vine’s pop art portrait (below left) was enormously sought after by collectors, Sam Taylor-Wood photographed Kate as the Madonna, and Marc Quinn produced an ice sculpture of her for the Taylor-Wood exhibition. Quinn reportedly gave Kate the ultimate line of bullshit about the ice’s significance:
“It’s a perfect metaphor for our consumption of your beauty – as the ice evaporates, it will be released as vapour into the art gallery, and people will breathe you in. There’s something so Eucharistic about it.”
Quinn is also the artist who created the “Aphrodite” or “Sphinx” prototypes (below center) of Kate that he will cast in bronze for an April 2007 exhibit. Quinn characterizes Kate as “the iconic beauty of our age” or some other such nonsense:
“In other times, there may have been people like Marilyn Monroe of the same status. This work is about how we look at beauty. (Moss) does not say much, she does not speak at all. There is a mystery about her, there”’s something about her people can imagine.”
Mmmhmm. If a sculptor said that to me, I would probably pose with my legs behind my head too.
* Thanx to the gay boyfriend for the tip on the toast and Marmite bidness.
