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VISUAL ARTS IN IRELAND
For more information about different
artforms in the 32 counties, see:
Irish Landscape Artists
A survey of topographical and
other outdoor painters.
Irish Portrait Artists
A review of portraiture in Ireland.
Irish Genre Painters
A summary of 20th century works.
FAMOUS PAINTERS/SCULPTORS
18th Century Irish Artists
Printmakers, painters, portraitists.
19th Century Irish Artists
Including the golden age of
Impressionism.
20th Century Irish Artists
Including contemporary creative
practitioners in most modern arts.
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For the rest of the 1990s Hirst's works
continued to grow in popularity. The theme of life and death continued
to permeate his output. Like the artist Andy
Warhol (and not unlike commercially successful Old Masters like Michelangelo,
Giovanni Bellini and Titian, and Baroque painters like Peter
Paul Rubens), he expanded his studio to take on assistants to help
produce his works, especially his fine
art painting. This led to controversy over the authenticity of some
of his works. In fact, he himself admitted to only having painted five
of his 'Spot' paintings because "I couldn't be f--- arsed doing it."
He described his own efforts as 'shite' and that one of his assistants
Rachel was far better at it. He claimed that "the best spot painting
you can have by me is one painted by Rachel...the only difference between
one painted by her and one of mine, is the money."
Hirst's First New York Solo Exhibition
In September 2000, Larry Gagosian held
a solo show for Hirst in New York City entitled: 'Damien Hirst: Models,
Methods, Approaches, Assumptions, Results and Findings'. The exhibition
attracted 100,000 people over 12 weeks and all works were sold. In April
2003, the newly relocated Saatchi Gallery staged an exhibition which incorporated
a Hirst retrospective. This triggered strains in the relationship between
the two men, over who was more responsible for boosting their joint profile.
In an outburst, Hirst criticised Saatchi, saying: "He only recognises
art with his wallet ... he believes he can affect art values with buying
power, and he still believes he can do it." The fall-out reportedly
dashed prospects of a Hirst Retrospective at the Tate Modern. In addition,
not long afterwards, Hirst re-purchased 12 works from Saatchi (a third
of the latter's holdings of the artist's early works), for a total fee
reported to exceed £8 million, netting his patron a substantial
profit, but preserving the market value of Hirst's oeuvre. Later in 2003,
Hirst had an exhibition called 'Romance In the Age of Uncertainty' at
the White Cube Gallery in London which made him a reported £11m,
taking his wealth to well over £35m.
In 2007, For the Love of God, a
human skull recreated in platinum and adorned with 8,061 diamonds sold
to a consortium which included the artist and The White Cube Gallery for
£50,000,000. In 2008, he took the unusual step of bypassing established
galleries by selling works direct to the public via an auction at Sotheby’s.
Principal showcase items included The Golden Calf, an animal with
gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde, and The Kingdom,
another preserved tiger shark. In addition, the sale included spot and
butterfly paintings, many incorporating diamonds and precious metals.
Over 21,000 people visited the pre-show and all 56 lots sold for a total
of £111 million. The auction was successful beyond any expectation
and set a record for a single-artist auction.
Praise and Scorn
Damien Hirst has been praised by many for
galvanising interest in the British arts and in helping to create the
image of a 'Cool Britannia'. Moreover, a large number of art professionals
and experts have been quick to acknowledge his prowess in marketing works
of art. Even so, his critics are no less vocal. A Daily Mail headline
stated "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising
forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians
of us all." Artist Charles Thomson of the The Stuckist Art Group
wrote of Hirst's works: "They're bright and they're zany - but there's
f--- all there at the end of the day." And in a 2008 TV documentary
The Mona Lisa Curse, the respected modern art critic Robert Hughes
attacked Hirst's work as 'tacky' and 'absurd' . However, despite the sceptics,
Hirst continues to be a best-seller and, despite a bust-up with his erstwhile
patron Charles Saatchi, the latter remains a staunch supporter of Hirst's
artistic talent, commenting: "general art books dated 2105 will be
as brutal about editing the late 20th century as they are about almost
all other centuries. Every artist other than Jackson
Pollock, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst will be a footnote."
Our View
In his self-promotion and general efforts
to publicize his painting, sculpture and installations, the truth is that
Hirst is doing no more than many other famous artists, from Rubens to
Salvador Dali. The only difference, frankly,
is that he's doing it better.
A more serious question concerns the longevity
of his works and thus his reputation as an artist, and - by implication
- the meaning of art in the 21st century. Personally, I see Hirst's work
as a simple reflection of modern society which attaches overriding importance
to 'news value'. As values change, I believe that the importance of his
contribution to visual art will diminish to the level of mere curiosity.
His name may endure for a little longer, but I doubt that few people will
remember his now-fashionable sculpture and installation.
As to his artistic skills, I believe them
to be highly overrated. Furthermore, his own view of art appears muddled
and confused. On the one hand, he seems to support the conceptualist notion
that the real creative act is the idea, rather than the finished
product. On the other hand, many of his works carry absurdly pretentious
titles - thus signposting their exceptional significance - and
a number are embedded or decorated with extremely valuable materials -
hardly the stuff of traditional conceptual
art.
However, Hirst's approach to modern art
is entirely consistent with a strong desire to make money and achieve
worldwide fame. So instead of arguing about his level of creative skill
as a sculptor or painter, let us praise him for his outstanding entrepreneurial
skills, and his unique contribution to the contemporary British art scene.
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