2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
There is an opinion that an artist can be either extremely rich or extremely poor. This can be applied to the person that will be discussed in this article. His name is Damien Hirst and he is one of the richest living artists.
According to the Sunday Times, according to their estimates, this artist was the richest in the world in 2010, and his fortune was estimated at 215 million pounds.
The work of Damien Hirst
In modern art, this man takes the role of "the face of death". This is partly due to the fact that he uses materials that are not used to being used to create works of art. Among them, it is worth noting paintings of dead insects, parts of dead animals in formaldehyde, a skull with real teeth, etc.
His work evokes shock, disgust and delight in people at the same time. For this, collectors from all over the world are ready to give a huge amount of money.
Damien Hirst biography
The artist was born in 1965 in a city called Bristol. His father was a mechanic and left the family when his son was 12 years old. MotherDamiana worked in a consulting office and was an amateur artist.
The future "face of death" in contemporary art led an asocial lifestyle. He was arrested twice for shoplifting. But despite this, the young creator studied at the School of Art in Leeds, and then entered the London College called Goldsmith College.
This establishment was somewhat innovative. The difference from others was that other schools simply accepted students who did not have the skills to enter a real college, and Goldsmiths College gathered a lot of talented students and teachers. They had their own program, for which you did not need to be able to draw. Recently, this form of training has only gained popularity.
In his student years, he liked to visit the morgue and make sketches there. This place laid the foundation for his future themes of works.
From 1990 to 2000, Damien Hirst had problems with drugs and alcohol. During this time, he managed to commit many different antics while intoxicated.
Artist career ladder
Hirst was first interested in the public at an exhibition called "Freeze", which was held in 1988. At this exhibition, Charles Saatchi drew attention to the work of this artist. This man was a famous tycoon, but he was also an avid art lover and a collector of art. The collector purchased two of Hirst's works within a year. After that, Saatchi frequently purchased art from Damien. Can be countedabout 50 works that were bought by this person.
Already in 1991, the aforementioned artist decided to hold his own exhibition, which was called In and Out of Love. He did not stop there and held several more exhibitions, one of which was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
In the same year, his most famous work was produced, it was called "The physical impossibility of death in the mind of the living." It was created at the expense of Saatchi. The work done by Damien Hirst, photo of which is a little lower, was a container with a large tiger shark, which is immersed in formaldehyde.
The photo may seem that the shark is quite small in length, but in fact it was 4.3 meters.
Scandals
In 1994, at an exhibition curated by Damien Hirst, there was a scandal with an artist named Mark Bridger. This incident happened because of one of the works called "Out of the Flock", which is a sheep immersed in formaldehyde.
Mark came to the exhibition where this work of art was shown and in one motion poured a can of ink into a container and proclaimed the new name of this work - "Black Sheep". Damien Hirst sued him for an act of vandalism. At the trial, Mark tried to explain to the jury that he just wanted to complement Hirst's work, but the court did not understand him and found him guilty. He could not pay the fine, because at that time he was inpoor condition, so he was given only 2 years of probation. Some time later, he created his own Black Sheep.
Damien's Merits
In 1995, a significant date happened in the life of the artist - he was nominated for the Turner Prize. The work en titled "separated mother and child" served to ensure that Damien Hirst became the laureate of this award. The artist combined 2 containers in this work. One contained a cow in formaldehyde, and the other contained a calf.
Last "loud" work
The most recent work that caused a stir is "Diamond Skull", which Damien Hirst spent quite a lot of money on. The work, the photo of which already shows all its high cost, Damien Hirst has not yet had.
The title of this installation is "For the Love of God". It represents a human skull, which is covered with diamonds. 8601 diamonds were used for this creation. The total size of the stones is 1100 carats. This sculpture is the most expensive of all existing by the artist. Its price is 50 million pounds. After that, he cast a new skull. This time it was the skull of a baby, which was called "For God's sake". The material used was platinum and diamonds.
In 2009, after Damian Hirst held his exhibition "Requiem", which caused a storm of discontent from critics,he announced that he was done with installations and would continue to do regular painting again.
Views on life
Based on the interview, the artist calls himself a punk. He says that he is afraid of death, because real death is truly terrible. According to him, it is not death that sells well, but only the fear of death. His views on religion are skeptical.
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