Damien Hirst: The Man Behind The Cherry Blossom Print and Others
Born Damien Steven Brennan, he’s an English artist, an art collector and also an entrepreneur who dominated the art scene in the 1990s and is reportedly the UK’s richest living artist. It may interest you that Damien formerly worked in construction before he ventured for a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmith College. His influences are Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Margaret Mellis, Sex Pistols, Francis Bacon, Michael Craig-Martin and John LeKay.
His art movement falls under Contemporary art and Young British Architects, and is best known for painting, sculpture, conceptual and installation art. His exhibition, Freeze, which took place in 1988 was significant in the development of the Young British Architects. It featured the works of Sarah Lucas, Fiona Rae among others.
He was raised Catholic and grew up in Leeds, a city in London. As a teenager, he was fascinated by images of death and injury, which serves as an inspiration for most, if not all of his works. His work was also on display at the 1993 Venice Bienniale, where he showed ‘’Mother and Child Divided,’’ an artwork that featured a bisected cow and her calf in four vitrines, or glass cases, filled with formaldehyde. Even though he was known to set the art world on fire with his gruesome works, he became one of the best artists in Britain.
The Inspiration Behind Cherry Blossoms
The Cherry Blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or Sukuna is the national flower of Japan and it represents a time of renewal and optimism. It’s a major theme in Buddhism that symbolizes the transcience of life.
In the case of Damien, his approach to making this work of art was quite surprising and unlike him- given that most of his works are dark with the epitome of death in them.
The piece was inspired by his mum, who remarked ‘’there’s enough horror in the world, can’t you do paintings of flowers?’’ His piece, according to him, states that cherries bring the past, present and future together, including what we hate and love. He also recalls a memory of watching his mum paint a cherry blossom tree when he was four.
Damien also denotes that the Cherry Blossoms are about beauty, life and death. They’re extreme- there’s something almost tacky about them. Him, dabbing into this piece, expresses the continuation of his long investigation into painting. He finished this piece in November 2020, being thankful for the pandemic in giving him lots of time to look at paintings, live and loom at them and make sure everything’s finished.
Cherry Blossoms happens to be Damien’s first museum exhibition in France.
Damien Hirst’s Artworks
In this section, we look at some of Hirst artworks in no particular order. Read on to know more about some of his artworks.
1. The Anatomy of an Angel
It was produced in 2008 and is considered one of Damien’s signature pieces. He took lots of inspiration from Alfred Boucher’s sculpture, L’Hirondelle which was produced in 1920. The artwork was exhibited in a Sotheby’s auction which was titled BEAUTIFUL INSIDE MY HEAD FOREVER.
The differences between Alfred and Damien’s artworks are obvious, succinct and very vital. Alfred’s piece denotes a beautiful and pure angel while Damien’s denotes the angel’s anatomy and humanity. In this artwork, Damien blends his interest in religious iconography with the notion that science is sacred. Damien’s piece, when looked up close, showcases the sculpted body on one side and her anatomy on the other, which makes the angel look like a human being like you and me.
The same goes for her face, with one side which shows her internal parts — skull, tender and other parts of her face- calm and same time, attractive.
2. For The Love Of God
This artwork was produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of a human skull, which is said to date back to the 18th century. The skull is encrusted with about 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped diamond located in the forehead — known as the Skull Star Diamond.
The artwork is a memento mori — a reminder of the mortality of humans. It cost about 14 million pounds to produce and was placed on its inaugural display at the White Cube Gallery in London in an exhibition ‘Beyond Belief’ with 50 million as the asking price.
This piece title was inspired by Damien’s mother, who once asked, ‘for the love of God, what are you going to do next?’; it was designed and sculptured by Jack du Rose and manufactured by the Piccadilly jewellers’ Bentley and Skinner.’ Hirst stated that the idea for the piece came from an Aztec turquoise skull at the British Museum.
The Love of God artwork has been on several journies too. It went on display on June 1 2007 at the White Cube Gallery in St James’, London. From November to December 2008, Damien exhibited the diamond skull at the historic Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, amidst public controversy.
The piece touched down in Florence, Italy at Palazzo Vecchio and also at Tate Modern, London between April 4 and June 25 2012. The period between the 10th of October 2013 through 22nd of January 2014 was the first time Damien had his first solo exhibition in the Middle East. It was put on display at the Relics Exhibition of Doha, Qatar. It was also on display at Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art Oslo, Norway and was around the 16th of September to the 15th of November 2015.
The Physical Impossibility of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living
This piece contains a 13-foot long tiger shark that is suspended in a tank containing formaldehyde. Damien used this piece to challenge us to comprehend death. It was created in 1991 and is considered an iconic work of Britain art in the 1990s, and has also become a symbol of Britart worldwide.
The shark used cost Damien about 6000 euros and the total cost to get the work done costed about 50,000 euros. The shark was caught off Herrey Bay in Queensland, Australia as he wanted something ‘big enough to eat you.’
The work was funded by Charles Saatchi who offered to pay for whatever artwork Damien wanted to create.
Other notable artworks of Damien Hirst include A Thousand Years, Mother and Child Divided, Away from the Flock, Mickey, Flemequine.
When I look at Damien Hirst artworks, I see someone who has broken the ‘adjacent possible’ and continues to gain inspiration from nature to pass messages (however controversial and odd) to us. The conversation doesn’t end here, what particular artwork of this artist takes your fancy? Let us discuss this in the comment section.
