ARTIST COMPARISON [IN PROGRESS]

John Singer Sargent/Vs/Damien Hirst/Vs/Joseph Cornell

Artwork

Symbolism

Damien Hirst is widely acclaimed for his use of religious imagery through his use of symbolic items such as a skull bedazzled in Swarovski crystals and sawed in half animal corpses preserved in formaldehyde. His big statement pieces also earnt him a good deal of fame, specifically 'A Thousand Years' which seemed unusually dark for him at the time, as he had only just come out with his spot paintings at Freeze. A Thousand Years shows two compartments of a box, in one side where flies are hatched from a box and in the other a fly killer suspended over a rotting cows heads; Hirst has said himself that the piece represents a God, that you go into the fly killer and die by chance. While Hirst's work is heavy in symbolism, Cornell's is much more simplistic. His surrealist style (although he does not like to associate himself with the surrealist movement) box collages contain Victorian bric-a-brac which he uses to show whatever he is interested in, often containing birds and constellations. Without any deeper meaning, his boxes have a light-hearted feel to them, which Cornell actively wanted, saying he wanted to create 'white magic' with them. Yet the two were caught up in a plagiarism case from Cornell's medical Cabinets that Damien Hirst had copied in his rendition of the 'medical cabinets.' Clearly, Hirst brought a deeper meaning to the idea and his own unique theme, but Cornell had the original idea-showing that starting with a light-hearted idea has the potential to bring fourth deeper meanings, depending on perspective.

Materials

Through their use of Victorian era materials, both Sargent and Cornell perpetuate traditions from the 19th Century. Cornell used collected items that he later used in his boxes from the 1920's, so even though he didn't live during this period of time, he was able to utilise the popular aesthetics of the time to give an aged, homely feeling to his artwork. In Sargent's oil paintings, however, this is not an aesthetic choice as he lived during this period of time and was affected by the environment around him. His choice of oil paint reflects the time as Acrylic paint hadn't yet been invented and his technique reflects what was traditional at the time. He believed that painting was a 'science' and that placing colour accurately was essential, unlike more modern and expressive brush strokes. Therefore. while it is a stretch to say so, both Sargent and Cornell effect similar mannerisms through their art even if the materials they use are very different.

Colour

Sargent's use of colour is particularly interesting given the specific technique he uses to achieve subtle tones in his portraits.One of the approaches that Sargent was taught for painting derived from Diego Velaquez which required the proper placement of tone as well as sparsely-placed vibrant colours which comes across in his limited colour palette and portraits. How stark different this approach is to Damien Hirst, who utilises colour in a way that makes it the core of all of his artwork, no matter which concept. Specifically, his infamous spot paintings. Just looking at his instagram page and his description of colours, it becomes apparent that he specifically likes to convey emotions through colours and use colours that are harmonious to each other. Hirst's use of colour is always very bold, but that is part of the contemporary art movement-to be bold in your use of materials. Whereas in traditional art circles this use of colour would be unbefitting, but what Sargent does very effectively is adding flourishes of colour, especially pink in the cheeks, and keeping the colur varitation of the face and body very subtle so as to be realistic. This was a 'radical' technique of his day so really, Sargent was using colour in a similar to how Hirst uses it today but over 100 years ago.

Artists

Lifestyle

All three artists in question all lead/have led very different lifestyles and all have impacted their artwork in some way. While Sargent and Hirst both live(d) very sociably and were more outlandish but on the opposite end of the scale, Cornell lived a very introverted lifestyle and refused to associate himself with any specific art group/movement. All artists were educated but to different extents, Hirst attended Goldsmiths, a reputable art college (now university), Cornell attended a state school but not specifically for art and the schooling system was not for Sargent, however in his early career he was able to study under several reputable artists at the time which gave a direct influence to his work. So yes the social environment of these artists had a big impact on the artists work as certain friendships and formal education of both Hirst and Sargent meant that they could bounce ideas off of each other and experience a more collective creative process. Lack of this in Cornell's case freed him in a way that the other two were not, he could invent the rules and have complete creative control over his work, however, his work on a whole would've had less of a reach especially compared to Hirst, the wealthiest living artist alive, who used his connections and made connections easily which made his work so famous that his name has become a brand. 

Inspiration

Hirst takes influence from artists he is inspired by heavily, which often lands him in copyright claims from the likes of John LeKay. On the other hand, Cornell's inspiration no doubt came from surrealists at the time and whatever took his interest at the time. Namely, For the Love of God-2007 and Medical Cabinets. Hirst also uses religious imagery in his work similar to Cornell. As we can infer from Hirst's A Thousand Years, Hirst likes to explore the theme of life and death, which reliqion also perpetuates through the idea of an afterlife and through this train of thought you have to question the existance of God too, which Hirst does. While Hirst takes a more critical outlook on this topic, Cornell attributes the success of his works (as well as the curing of an ailment) to his involvement with Christian Science (there beliefs can be found in a link from my artist research page). He wanted to create 'white magic' with his boxes and convey and idea of innocence through them which I think he did successfully. Despite both artists having such opposing stances on religion, unlike Hirst, Cornell does not perpetuate ideas of religion through his work, indicating a contentment with his life. Not to say that Hirst is not content but I think that religion provided the ultimate answer for Cornell; through Hirsts violent approach we can see that he is possibly warring with himself over what he beliefs, as his work generates more questions regarding the topic than answers.