Damien Hirst is one of the most expensive contemporary artists who became such because of topic of death and his own impudence. His works provoke both delight and disgust; collectors pay for them millions of dollars. How he manages to sell the dismembered animals rolled into formaldehyde for such fabulous sums – this seems to be a secret. But one thing is for sure – Damien Hirst is a talent who has his own unique style.
In 1988, Hirst organized the exhibition of young artists called Freeze. A collector and promoter Charles Saatchi came to check young talents and their works. Largely, this meeting made Damien widely popular. Saatchi advised Damien that contemporary art is a competition of ideas. Following this, Damien made his conclusions and started to invent and implement objects of art, weird, scary, and therefore attractive even for experienced collectors. Damien understood, the more provocative works are, the more expensive they are (Artsy.net, “Damien Hirst”). In 1992, he exhibited his first landmark work "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" that was a stuffed shark put into formaldehyde (Khan Academy, “Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”). Nowadays, formalin works of Hirst are the most recognizable works of the artist, who so often raises the topic of death. Subsequently Saatchi, having organized an amazing advertising campaign, sold that shark for £18 million, turning Damien Hirst into a living sensation.
Choosing a shark for this installation was not a coincisence. H needed something unfamiliar and shocking, something large and unusual and even more terrible than death. Shark was right was needed – it is the source of danger and, ultimately, the death itself. Moreover, the shark doubles death: it is dead and, at the same time, it is a carrier of death. Inspired by the success, Hirst began putting dead bodies of various other animals into formaldehyde. In many of them, the topic of death is intertwined with the second favorite Hirst`s topic – with wealth. In the artworks of Hirst, there are easily traced motifs familiar with the works of Warhol and Koons – namely, the price of the piece of art as one of its meanings. Hirst creates installations for a lot of money, and sells them for even more money. It is such a blatant play on the vanity. With this, Hirst recalls most vividly that all the money and luxury are nothing more than ashes and vanity.
Hirst was creating new and new pieces of art, and they were becoming more and more expensive; and the main topic remained – death. He himself was drinking, used drugs – as if he was looking for death or just wanted to feel its closeness and inspiration (Artsy.net, “Damien Hirst”). The artist has never been afraid of death, and because of this, he made a fantastic show of it, especially successfully commercial show (Khan Academy, “Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”). Nevertheless, his pieces of art are true art, no matter what other could say. And here are some proofs for this.
All his arts pieces have artistic image. An image is a kind of subjective spiritual and psychic reality that occurs in the inner world of a human being in the process of contact with the outside world. Damien manages to show an image of his inner world in his pieces of art united by the common topic of death. Furthermore, his works have an artistic symbol which develops from an artistic image. Symbol of Hirst`s art is a profound way of completing his essential artistic and aesthetic content. The symbol indicates a high artistic and aesthetic significance of Hirst`s work, a high talent of an artist, his greatness.
Further, Damien Hirst strictly adheres to the canons which he developed by himself and which are peculiar to his art. Such canons are based on rules and regulations prevailing in the modern art and fix basic structural and constructive patterns of specific types of modern art. Artistic and aesthetic value of Hirst`s canons is that the artist possesses a canonical scheme which exists in the mind of the artist
Another important proof that Damien Hirst creates his works of art is that fact that they are all completed in a single artistic style. In fact, style is freer in manifestation and peculiar modification of the canon. His style the principles of the art of thinking, ways of figurative expressions, figurative-expressive techniques constructively are formal structures, etc. Style of Hirst is a certain system of figurative and expressive principles of artistic thinking of the artist that are well and accurately perceived by all recipients – general audience worldwide.
Works Cited
Artsy.net. “Damien Hirst”. artsy.net. N.d. Web. 15 Jul. 2016.
Khan Academy. “Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”. khanacademy.org. N.d. Web. 15 Jul. 2016.
