Damien Hirst

“If you admit to yourself what it means to be an artist, then the best way to do it is to give up making art, and put what you’ve got into other people” (Damien Hirst,1997, p. 15).

Damien Hirst is an English artist which was born in 1965 in Bristol. He became famous with the exhibition under the title “Freeze” in 1988. After this exhibition, Charles Saatchi, the art collector, began to collect Damien’s work (Art Directory). He also bought Damien’s “A Thousand years” ( lenin Imports, 2004). He also held an exhibition under the title of “In and Out of Love” in 1991, in which he filled the gallery with hundreds of living tropical butterflies. His works can be organized in three categories: paintings, cage-like sculptures, and aquarium-like pieces. His paintings also could be divided into two categories: spot paintings and spinning paintings. The pharmaceutical and medical paraphernalia production are counted as cage-like category, and the cows, the sheep, and the shark which are preserved in formaldehyde are counted as aquarium-like category (Archive). His art works are mysterious, minimalism, and involves thoughts. “Life and Death” is the main idea of his works; as he said: “I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now” (Eslamieh, 2011)

He did a lot of series work and those are so famous, for instance, The Natural History series in which dead animals are preserved in formaldehyde in an aquarium. Their titles show the thoughts and his will and the cover. It just can't be described by words. You may even not understand, nor visualise it without experiencing it first.(Lenin Imports, 2004).

The Natural History series, the ones which animals are preserved in formaldehyde, are the most famous ones and also the most controversial ones. Between all of these formaldehyde works we can name the most amazing and probably the most famous one “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”(1991), the huge tiger shark preserved in the formaldehyde shown at the Saatchi gallery.[Archive]. In this art work, Damien shows the frenzy of death with the shark (Smith, 2007).

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death, 1991

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death, 1991

He knows his art in a sophisticated simplicity. In one of his works, he puts some unique fish in the shelf-like aquarium in the formaldehyde liquid, which it looks like his spot paintings also, in the same direction. “All the fish are swimming in one direction, to understanding” (Eslamieh, 2011).

           Damien Hirst,Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purpose of Understanding (Right), 1991

Damien has done many works in the cage-like categories in which he exhibit his art in the glass room. Damien says, “I really love glass, a material which is very solid, is dangerous but transparent. The idea of being able to see everything but not able to touch, solid but invisible. The slits in the glass are very important to the work; you need some sort of acces” (Lenin Imports, 2004). He inspired the structure of the works and industrial material by seeing the art works of an American minimalism Grenville Davey and Tony Cragg. Damien also influenced the technique of drawing of framing the objects and figures within the box by Francis Bacon. Of bacon’s adding frame to his art works Hirst says, “it’s a doorway, it’s a window, it’s two dimensional, it’s three dimensional; he is thinking about glass reflection” (Faber and Faber, 2001, p.68).

A Thousand Years is probably one of his the most important  art work. It is similar to a hundred years which has done in the same year (1990). In both works there is a glass room that divided by a glass partition that has some whole on it. In one half room, there is a white box and newly hatched flies and still alive flies are inside the room, and in another half there is an insect-o-cutor hangs and all dead flies cover the floor. The difference between a thousand years and a hundred years is in the a thousand years there is a decaying cow’s head immersed in the blood! (Faber and Faber, 2001, p.128). He explains his work, “I’ve shown you life and death of these flies, and also I’ve shown they are eating and dying” (Eslamieh, 2011).

 Damien Hirst, A Thousand Years, 1990

  Damien Hirst, A Thousand Years [Detail], 1990

In many of Damien’s works which involves animals, except a thousand years, they are not suppose to go through any natural disintegrate. Actually he faced a lot of problems to keep them in formaldehyde and preserve them. People had asked Damien many times that whether he is thought about corpses will eventually decay anyway. He replies that he doesn’t care because the idea is more important than the actual piece. As long as they remain until he is alive, and he doesn’t care about what will happen to them after (Lenin Imports, 2004).

Medical paraphernalia is one of his themes in cage-like categories in which he inspired by pharmacy tools and pieces(Lenin Imports, 2004). He believes that “All the medicines which are there between birth and death to keep us alive” (Damien Hirst, 1997, p.225)

 Damien Hirst, Pharmacy, 1992

 Damien Hirst, Pharmacy, 1992

 Damien Hirst, Pharmacy, 1992

 Damien Hirst, Pharmacy, 1992

Hirst also has done many paintings inspired by pharmaceutical, deuterated compounds, and controlled substances. Probably most of you are familiar with the “spot” painting. He has done several of these accurate graded and the same sized painted dots in the different size of canvases and different arrangement of colours (Venetian Red, 2008). He believes that “there is similar scientific approach to the life between paintings and drug companies but it doesn’t mean that art have all the answers, but drug companies do”. In these paintings applying grid structure is the beginning of the system. You can not find the same two colours in the same painting (I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now. 1997, p.246).

 Damien hirst, Anthraquinone-1-Diazonium Chloride,1994

 Damien Hirst, Spot paintings

Damien also recorded many theme art works. Cigarette is one of his themes. For instance, Part Time is one of his cigarette’s theme works. In this piece he minimized the life cycle into a huge ashtray, “cigarettes shows the life, the packets shows the birth, God is showing by the lighter because he gives life to everything, and ashtray represent death and grave (I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now. 1997, p.102).

 Damien Hirst, Party Time, 1995

  Damien Hirst, Party Time, 1995

Jewellery is the main substance of Damien’s work. He recently has done a sculpture out of a 18^th century human’s skull and diamond (Qatreh, 2012). Actually, he made the skull with platinum and he used the original teeth of the skull which he bought from a taxidermist in London and then research revealed it dated from around 1720-1810 and it seems its belongs to a 35 year old man. The title of this work, inspired by reaction of Damien’s mother, when she is hearing what Damien’s new plan is. As he explains: “She used to say, ‘for the love of god, what are you going to do next?’” (Sotheby’s, 2008, p.21).

 Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007

In 1994 he faced a lot of problem to get his art works to United State to exhibit them. He had delayed on one of his work by US customs until he confirmed that the animals are considered as an art not food. Then the work was suppose to exhibit in New York City was banned by Health Department because of “odours and fluids of rotting process”. And also another art work banned by US Department of Agriculture which was for another New York City Exhibition. The reason was the temporary ban on British beef. Damien said, “Their concern was if someone ate the beef. I told them that nobody is going to eat it. But they replied that this is not the point. I also told them that if anyone ate it, the formaldehyde will kill them anyway, but they said that this is not the point either”. But finally Damien could convince them that this piece also is considering as an art work and not food (Lenin Imports, 2004).

In 1995 Damien was going to exhibit one of his works, which was involved a dead cow and a bull but this time they weren’t preserved in formaldehyde, in New York gallery but this art was also banned again by New York Health Official because they were concerned of the glass box may explode, because of the gases which releasing during decaying process. So Damien made a new art work and keep them in the formaldehyde to not having any of those problems anymore. But he admitted that he really liked to do the previous one without the formaldehyde (Lenin Imports, 2004).

In 1999, while the “Sensation” exhibition was happening and there were a lot of arguments over that when it arrived at Brooklyn, New York, he faced the similar situation again. A small protest happened over Damien’s art works by PETA (The pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They tried to ban the work and close the show but finally nothing affected Damien’s art work and the show went as plan (Lenin Imports, 2004).

However, the Tate gallery which was started to prepare long time ago, eventually opened in 2008. They exhibit almost all of Damien Hirst’s art works since he was student till now. The 47 years old man which he said once that the Tate museum is for dead artist, now he feels conductive about this gallery. He explains, “Its being for long time that we are working on this exhibition and now I hardly can believe that it is opening. I thought that I will avoid going back and looking at the past, but now I’m exciting about what I’ve done before. This exhibition tells the story about what I’ve done through 25 years; in fact it draws my life plan”. Damien calls this exhibition as “Half-Life” exhibition and he believes that he reached only a half of his art life (Qatreh, 2012)

There are a lot of differing opinions about Damien Hirst art works, but no one doubts that now he is the richest artist in the world (Qatreh, 2012).  

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Bibliography

I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now. (1997). London: Booth-clobborn editions

Art Directory. (n.d). Retrieved April 1-8, 2012, From http://www.art-directory.info/index.shtml

Lenin Imports. (2004). Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.leninimports.com/damien_hirst.html

Archive. (n.d). Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hirst.html

Eslamieh, M. (2011). Soreie Mehr. Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.iricap.com/magentry.asp?id=94

Smith, R. (2007). New York Times. Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/arts/design/16muse.html

Damien Hirst. (n.d). Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.damienhirst.com/home

Venetian Red. (2008). Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://venetianred.net/2008/10/14/1698/

Qatreh. (2012). Retrieved April 1-15, 2012, From http://www.ghatreh.com/news/nn9528916/%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%AB%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%AA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%86