Artis 42: Damien Steven Hirst

Damien Steven Hirst was born in Bristol England in 1965.  He grew up in Leeds and was seen as a rebellious child.  He attended the Jacob Kramer School of art when he was young and in 1986 he began his studies of fine art at the Goldsmiths University of London, he studied there for three years.  In the 1990s he became one of the most prominent members of the Young British Artists group.  A central theme found in Hirst’s art is death; one of his most famous series included the preservation of dead and even dissected animals.  He has also created “spin paintings” and “spot paintings” that are characterized with seemingly random colors.  Although he personally created his early work, he then used assistants to help keep up with the high demands of the amount of work being produced.  This caused a great deal of tension because he was coming up with the idea but not actually executing the idea, Hirst felt that because the idea was his, he was the artist.  He tends to speak with vulgar language and in the 1990s he had serious drug and alcohol problems.  But his art is seen as very desirable and in 2008 he sold a complete show at auction bringing in a large sum of money.