Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and the most prominent member of the group known as "Young British Artists", he dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is well known for his contemporary art and has been claimed to be 'the richest living artist to date' according to Wikipedia.
His work became iconic in Britain, including dead animals (a shark, a sheep and a cow) preserved and sometimes dissected, e.g. "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" , works in which the themes centered Death.
One of his recent works, from 2007, a diamond encrusted skull, “For the Love of God”, was a product of Hirst’s, estimated to be worth more than $50 million, (maybe even $100 million) and is said to come from the skeleton of a man who lived between 1720 and 1810, a 35 year old man from Europe.It had taken 18 months to have the skull fully covered in 8,601 diamonds, with the teeth as an exception, for it to be fully ready to be displayed.
As said by Wikipedia the skull was inspired by when Hirst's mother had asked "for the love of god, what are you going to do next?"
Mercantilism in the Renaissance era was when wealth had been measured by your possession of gold, silver and other precious metal as such. Aspects of the Mercantilism ideas and the increase of Damien Hirsts status is evident through this particular piece, as it is counted as one of the most expensive pieces of art so far, heightening or elevating his status as a high class contemporary artist.
This art work is now held at the White Cube gallery in London, this work costs fourteen million pounds ($30.4m NZD) to make, and was sold for fifty million pounds ($108m NZD)
"I think most people would agree that their skulls are a priceless asset. But what artist Damien Hirst has done to the following skull has actually made a nondescript skull into one of the most expensive pieces of art ever."
Referencing: http://anthropology.net/2007/06/01/damien-hirsts-diamond-encrusted-skull-jeweled-skulls-in-archaeology/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst
Hey Val, interesting information here! Good stuff! I personally liked how you added this information here ,"I think most people would agree that their skulls are a priceless asset. But what artist Damien Hirst has done to the following skull has actually made a nondescript skull into one of the most expensive pieces of art ever." Hirst' persona is very wild and liberated, he makes crazy pieces of work and at the end gets positive outcomes and credit for it. Although personally, I'm not really sure if his work has got a much more deeper meaning behind it? What is your own personal comment behind Hirst' works? C=
ReplyDeleteI really like the diamond encrusted skull. I don't think i have seen anything like it before, and god knows how he came up with it? i think its cool that Hirst has managed to get his hands on such an ancient piece of history, and then turned it into a 'treasure' which is ironic as it would be considered an ancient treasure due to its age and background. I like how he had left the teeth, so that there is still an orginal part left of the mans skull. I think it was a brave choice that Hirst made going ahead with this idea, but i also think the finishing work is brilliant and it was well worth every minute.
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