Week 4- Damien Hirst and the diamond skull.

As we will be at Noho Marae at Awataha in week 4, this blog question is for week 4 and week 5.
Research the art work of Damien Hirst, in particular his work 'For the love of God'(2008), a diamond encrusted skull.

Discuss how Hirst's persona and work relate to the Renaissance concepts of Mercantillism and the (increased) status of the artist.

Born in Bristol in 1965, Damien Hirst is a very well known British Artist. His work (often controversial) deals with the ideas of mortality, which is seen clearly in his most famous series of work, "The Natural History", featuring various animals (including sheep, cows and a shark) preserved and suspended in formaldehyde in lifelike poses. His work 'The physical impossibility of Death in the mind of someone living' which features a 14m long Tiger Shark suspended in formaldehyde is considered the iconic work of 90's British art and the symbol of Britart world wide. His work also includes ‘spot’ paintings and ‘spin’ paintings.

One of the main controversies behind Hirst’s work is that he rarely does the work himself. Hirst has been quoted as saying "The real creative act is the conception and as progenitor of the idea, I am the artist."[1] Seemingly treating his artwork like that of a factory or brand, Hirst employs over 100 artists and fabricators to create artworks for him at a starting wage of just 9 pounds. Artists were reportedly paid around 600 pounds to create an artwork that would be sold for over 600,000, making Hirst almost like a mercantilist nation in his own right; importing resources such as paints and canvases, paying workers to create around his ideas, and then selling the creations for massive profit. This method of acquiring wealth through export and limited import has made him an extremely rich man, as of 2007 he was the richest living artist of all time.

The ultimate example of this is Hirst’s ‘For the love of god’, A 50 million pound platinum skull studded with diamonds. Created by London jewellers Bentley & Skinner out of 6 platinum plates shaped to look like the skull and 8601 diamonds, the estimated price of the jewels is said to be about 10 million pounds and it has been called the most ambitious piece of British jewellery since the crown jewels. The work reportedly got its name from Hirst’s mother, who once said to him “For the love of god, what’re you going to make next?”. The skull has received very mixed media, some calling it the most ambitious art piece of recent years, others labelling it an attempt at getting money, one things for sure, that’s one expensive artwork.

References: [1] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23410356-inside-damien-hirsts-factory.do

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hirst.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

http://www.leninimports.com/damien_hirst.html

http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2367

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23410356-inside-damien-hirsts-factory.do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g49gGKV7Epc

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[1] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23410356-inside-damien-hirsts-factory.do