DAMIEN HIRST ARTIST RESEARCH
Damien Hirst
"Is Mr Death In?"
| Damien Hirst by Jonathan Yeo |
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector born 7th June 1965 in Bristol, but later moved to London. He grew up with his mother (and Stepfather from the age of 2-10) who was Irish Catholic and stated that she 'lost control' of her son when he was young. Hirst was arrested twice for shoplifting although he would say that his mother wouldn't tolerate rebellion. His mother was also artistic but dropped art because she didn't like her teacher-so when Hirst showed a love for drawing she was very encouraging.
He attended Allerton Grange School and also the school sixth form-achieving an E-grade in A Level Art. He then applied to Jacob Kramer School of Art and was initially refused a place but was successful in getting a place on the foundation art course. During this time, Hirst visited a Gallery displaying work by Francis Davidson, which Hirst has said 'blew me away' and motivated him to model his work on Davidson for the next two years. After spending two years working on building sites in London, Hirst applied for Goldsmiths University of London, where he was taught under lecturer Michael-Craig Martin. While he was a student, Hirst had a placement at a mortuary which could be where he gleans morbidity from for his work.
In 1995, Damien Hirst won the Turner Prize for art as a result of his 'Mother and Child Divided' piece and in the years to follow he reinvented his name into a brand. Much like Andy Warhol and the Campbell Soup cans, Hirst employed a team and has mass produced over 1400 spot paintings. After looking at his gallery on his website it is clear to see that he will continuously develop on concepts such as spot paintings and spin paintings (in which you use a lazy susan to apply paint to a canvas while spinning to give a very specific effect) as well as the imagery of the cows head, butterflies and skulls. Since young he has been trying to communicate the confusion in the idea of death and how hard it is to process it. While the art may take different forms the imagery in religion and death and life are always present in his work. You could contrast the fly paintings with the butterfly paintings-Butterflies give us hope because they look alive even if they're dead (said by Hirst) but the flies just create this black, void-like mass which suggests either conflicting views or a want to represent the ideas of others in order to best communicate Hirst's ideas of life and death to others.
Freeze
During his second year at Goldsmiths, Hirst curated a student exhibition called 'Freeze.' Based in a disused London Port Authority administrative block in the London Docklands, Hirst gained sponsorship for the event from the London Docklands Development Corporation and worked on renovating the place. Visitors to the show included important figures of the art world-Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Sorenta. The idea that you went out into the art worl and did something for yourself rather than waiting for the art world to come to you was something innovative and Hirst was the spearhead of it all, which caused people to begin the listen to him and jump-started his career.
1987–1990 (sourced from Wikepedia, I thought it was helpful)
1987 – Damien Hirst and Holden Rowan, Old Court Gallery, Windsor Arts Centre, Windsor, UK – Curator Derek Culley
1988 – Damien Hirst: Constructions and Sculpture, Old Court Gallery, Windsor, UK -Curator Derek Culley
1988 – Freeze, Surrey Docks, London, UK
1989 – New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
1990 – Modern Medicine, Building One, London, UK
1990 – Gambler, Building One, London, UK
1990 – Building One, Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery, Paris, FR
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Pictured above: A Thousand Years, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Something Living and For the Love of God |
'Is something Rotten in the World of Art?'
Freeze turned out to garner more fame for the other artists in it than it did for Hirst himself. He 'understood that people wanted a larger-than-life statement of belief from contemporary art.' Almost immediately after Freeze, Hirst began working on 'A Thousand Years'-a glass cube divided into two rooms, one with box that hatches maggots into flies and one with a fly killer suspended above a rotting cows head. I an interview with Noel Fielding, Hirst said 'The idea of the fly killer is some sort of God where it's completely random-you go into the fly killer and you die by chance.' This was a piece that Francis Bacon stood in front of, according to Charles Saatchi, for an hour and liked. He said it 'worked' which since Bacon notoriously didn't compliment people, was a massive compliment to Hirst. The piece includes references to other artists too but most obviously Francis Bacon with the cows head. Hirst would go on to create pieces inspired by Bacon paintings in a similar fashion but due to the stark contrast between Freeze and then this, it makes this a pinpoint moment of his career.
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| A Thousand Years-1990 |
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| (Black Sun, flies and Resin, 2004) (Rapture, Butterfies and Household Gloss on Canvas,2003) |
Controversy
Hirst has been subject to many copyright claims from artists such as John LeKay (For the Love of God) and Robert Dixon. As Hirst's name has become a brand it is subject to issues of legality but I think every artist takes inspiration from other artists work for their own and will pay homage to them-we learn from the time we are children and continue to through our lives by copying and therefore learning, so I don't believe that this dis-credits Hirst at all. Even in countless pieces where Hirst has taken ideas from Francis Bacon, Bacon liked them complimented Hirst on them (indirectly) and didn't accuse him of stealing the idea of the cows head. I think where too much money becomes involved is when issues arise-it's not a problem with the artist it is the judgement that comes as a price for immense success.
Some also think that the fact that he uses a team of artists discredits him as an artist but artists have been doing throughout history. Hirst is a contemporary artist and is constantly looking for ways to make his art look better, it isn't that he is lazy or undeserving of the money because he hasn't created the art-it is that he has the money to be able to expand his art to make it look better, provide artists with a job and earn money from his art. In an interview, Hirst says that 'money should be an enabler' and all of the wealth he has now is what he has earned for himself, therefore it shouldn't discredit him as an artist in my opinion.
"Art goes on in your head... If you said something interesting, that might be a title for a work of art and I'd write it down. Art comes from everywhere. It's your response to your surroundings. There are on-going ideas I've been working out for years, like how to make a rainbow in a gallery. I've always got a massive list of titles, of ideas for shows, and of works without titles"





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