Hirst, Damien (1965-…), is a controversial British artist who sometimes uses bisected animals as the principal feature of his works. Hirst is a leading member of the Young British Artists (YBA), a group of British artists who emerged in London during the 1980’s.
Hirst’s works often rely upon shock as a primary force, employing unconventional and provocative materials, such as blood, flies, maggots, and animals such as cows, sheep, and sharks. Hirst uses these irregular materials in sculptures and installations to draw attention to such timeless subjects as beauty, love, and death.
Hirst’s best-known works include a 14-foot (4.3-meter) shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde and titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991). In 1995, Hirst won the prestigious Turner Prize, an annual award given to a British artist under the age of 50. The prize-winning work, titled Mother and Child, Divided, featured a bisected cow and calf suspended in a tank of formaldehyde. Hirst was also nominated for the Turner Prize in 1992.
In the early 2000’s, Hirst turned to painting. His pictures can be divided roughly into two groups. The paintings of one group, known as the “Spot” paintings, consist of colored dots that refer to pharmaceutical chemicals. The paintings of the other group, called the “Spin” paintings, are created by the force of paint poured onto spinning canvases, producing various patterns. Other paintings feature skulls and butterflies.
Hirst received international publicity for his piece For the Love of God (2007). The work consists of a skull covered with 8,601 diamonds, including one weighing more than 52 carats. The skull cost $23.6 million to make and was sold in 2007 to an investment group for $100 million.
Hirst created two books consisting of illustrations of his works and his thoughts about them—I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Elsewhere, One to One, Forever, Now (1997) and On the Way to Work (2002). A selection of his drawings was published as From the Cradle to the Grave (2005).
Hirst was born in Bristol on June 7, 1965, and raised in Leeds. He studied at Goldsmith’s College at London University from 1986 to 1989.
