Damien Hirst : Art in the age of mass media
Does anyone play it better? Excerpts from John A. Walker’s book (2001).
Damien Hirst : The Artist as Media Celebrity
During the 1990s, Damien Hirst (b.1965) became Britain’s most famous, young, living sculptor and painter, in part because of his own flair for self-promotion and the publicity skills of his primary patron Charles Saatchi. Damien Hirst evinced marketing abilities while still studying at Goldsmith’s by organizing a student show entitled Freeze (1988) in a derelict Docklands’ building. Once established, he continued to curate high profile mixed exhibitions with wacky titles such as Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away (Serpentine Gallery, 1994). Artworks presenting the corpses of creatures such as fish, sharks, cows and sheep floating in formaldehyde inside glass vitrines extended the shock-horror imagery associated with Francis Bacon and attracted numerous headlines and cartoons. Further publicity resulted when one of these works—"Away from the Flock" (1994)— shown at the Serpentine Gallery was vandalized and a court case followed.Charles Saatchi, of course, was an expert at exploiting the mass media because of his long career in advertising. The exhibition of British works from his collection held at the Royal Academy and entitled Sensation (1997) attracted extensive media coverage especially because it featured, besides several works by Damien Hirst, Marcus Harvey’s controversial painting "Myra" (1965). The latter, a huge portrait of the child murderess Myra Hindley based on a police mug shot and constructed from a child’s handprints, prompted protest demonstrations outside Burlington House by mothers of murder victims. The painting appeared on the front pages of newspapers again after it was damaged by two vandals. When Sensation appeared in New York in October 1999, further media coverage followed when Rudi Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, attacked it. This time the main cause of complaint was a work by Chris Ofili, a painter who used Catholic imagery in association with pornographic images and elephant dung.[1]
By 1994, Damien Hirst had become so well known that the BBC TV arts strand Omnibus was willing to devote a whole programme to him. The following year, the British arts establishment endorsed him by awarding him the Turner Prize organized by the Tate Gallery and sponsored by Channel 4 TV. Once Hirst was earning money, he diversified. Like his patron, he became a businessman by investing in London restaurants and bars, such as The Pharmacy, Notting Hill Gate, which he then "branded" by displaying examples of his art. Hirst also expanded in terms of media: he devised a billboard image, an advertisement for Absolut Vodka, a commercial for cable television and a trailer— featuring live rats— for an opera. His "spot" paintings were reproduced on dresses and he directed a narrative film entitled Hanging Around (1996). He designed the book Snowblind (1998)—a limited edition text about cocaine costing £1000 a copy—and collaborated with the band Blur to make a pop music video. He designed a multiple consisting of a bowl, mug and plate set with cow illustrations and assisted the Welsh actor and comedian Keith Allen to issue records of the football anthems Vindaloo (1998) and Jerusalem (2000). In 1999, one of his paintings was even included in a British spacecraft dispatched to Mars.
The male British proletariat have given rise to a loud, binge-drinking, bottom-exposing, lad culture that Damien Hirst and Keith Allen contribute to. This is one reason why their antics have attracted the attention of the tabloid press. Hirst’s art was also so simple in conception and execution that it could be understood and appreciated by schoolchildren fascinated by stuffed animals displayed in science museums.
After a pause in press coverage, Damien Hirst returned to the headlines in April 2000 when he unveiled a 20-feet-high polychrome sculpture entitled "Hymn" that was simply an enlargement of a young scientist’s anatomy set (a 10-inches-high male torso with internal organs exposed). The educational toy was designed by Norman Emms and sold by Humbrol Ltd. Gigantism is one method of attracting attention, as Jeff Koons had previously demonstrated with his public sculpture "Puppy" (1992), a cute canine constructed from earth and flowers the size of a house. As explained earlier, Jeff Koons had been found guilty of plagiarism and it seems Damien Hirst deliberately used the same tactic knowing that public accusations of plagiarism and threats of legal action would generate valuable free publicity. (An out of court settlement was reached when Damien Hirst agreed to donate money to children’s charities.) The fact that Charles Saatchi bought the sculpture for the large, round sum of £1 million was a further reason why it featured on the front pages of broadsheets as well as their arts pages.
Footnote:
[1] On Saatchi, see Rita Hatton and John A. Walker. (2000). Supercollector: A critique of Charles Saatchi (London: ... ellipsis) and for more on Damien Hirst and Marcus Harvey see: John A. Walker. (1999). Art and outrage: Provocation, Controversy and the Visual Arts (London and Sterling, VA, USA: Pluto Press), pp. 181-7, 207-13.
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