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Damien Hirst: Shockaholic (HOLD MUH BEER, IT'S ART, PART 2)
BBC News ^ | September 21, 2002 | Bob Chaundy

Posted on 09/21/2002 6:31:33 AM PDT by MadIvan

Artist Damien Hirst has apologised for comments he made in a video essay on the events of 11 September. He is of course no stranger to shock.

"What I like is that contradiction: a really gorgeous photograph of something horrific." When he said this, Damien Hirst was referring not to 11 September but to his adolescent fascination with illustrated pathology books.

His "interest in wounds" included pictures of burns victims and those affected by venereal disease. "The photographs are so delicious - you are in people's pants."

His taste for the macabre has clearly not left him. But to shock is part of Damien Hirst's stock-in-trade.

He grew up in Leeds, the son of a motor mechanic who left home when he was 12. His mother claims she lost control of Damien at an early age.

He became something of a delinquent, arrested twice for shoplifting. Despite his poor circumstances, he stayed on at school to take A-Levels and gained an E in art.

It was enough to get him into a local art school. He didn't stay for long and left to work, for two years, on London building sites before being admitted to Goldsmith's College.

Though he was by no means the most talented of his year, Damien Hirst was streetwise.

He put on his own show entitled Freeze, as a way of getting his exhibits into a gallery. It worked in spades.

The advertising mogul and art-collector, Charles Saatchi, visited Freeze and within a year had bought two of Hirst's medicine cabinet exhibits.

The sheer grotesqueness of his work was to make Damien Hirst a household name, even among those who would never contemplate setting foot in an art gallery.

I refuse to go any art gallery that demeans itself to the point where it displays his works - Ivan

It was he who put a shark in a tank of formaldehyde. This was followed by a shoal of fish, then sheep, pigs, cows and calves in various states of dismemberment.

One of his rotting cow's head exhibits also contained maggots, newly-hatched bluebottle flies and an "Insectocutor" to electrocute them. It won him the 1995 Turner Prize.

It should haver won him a trip to the mental hospital; people with unstable personalities take note - to avoid having to take Prozac, just say you're an artist - Ivan

Hirst says his intention was to force his viewers to examine their and society's attitude to death, and the relationship between man and animals, art and reality.

"I want to make people think, not to totally shock the shit out of them for the sake of it."

Hey Damien, it does make me think: it makes me think that you're an utter prat, and those who buy your work are even worse - Ivan

Even current Damien Hirst sceptics found his early work intriguing. "His glass boxes and stage sets were quite interesting; repellent but curious," says David Lee, editor of the arts magazine Jackdaw.

"Repellent but curious"; this is what modern art is trying to achieve - Ivan

"But they don't make me think any more about mortality than a dead dog in a lay-by."

Others clearly disagree. Hirst was embraced not only by Charles Saatchi but also by such establishment figures as Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Gallery.

Another couple of names to add to the Catalogue of Fools - Ivan

Under the deft guidance of art dealer, Jay Jopling, and with a considerable capacity for self-promotion, Damien Hirst soon became rich and famous.

Rich and notorious more like - Ivan

With his legendary capacity for drink and drugs and his association with numerous celebrities, he appeared to blur the distinctions between the worlds of pop music, fashion and visual art.

No wonder we've seen a decline in all 3 with people like this around - Ivan

With fellow-travellers like Tracey Emin, he had changed the status of the conceptual artist.

His more recent work has become less unconventional, but no less lucrative. He derives most of his income from collages, smaller sculptures and his "spot" paintings; white canvases covered with equal-sized coloured spots.

One of them is destined to be landed on Mars next year on the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 spacecraft.

Which tells us all we need to know about the largely French-run European Space Agency - Ivan

Damien Hirst is now 35 and lives on a Devon farm with his Californian wife Maia and their two young children.

He has been involved in two London restaurants (Quo Vadis and Pharmacy), he has directed the pop group Blur's In The Country video, and he helped create Fat Les, the conceptual supergroup famous for its football anthems Vindaloo and Jerusalem.

None of these things are recommended - Ivan

"He was the person who understood that visibility is everything in the art world of the 1990s, and that people will assume you're good if you've been given enough air-time," says David Lee.

"Now we want to see something substantial, something that we're not just told is good."

Don't hold your breath, mate - Ivan

There is a distinct feeling that Damien Hirst's star is waning. The paintings have not received anything like the acclaim of his cadavers.

That star may rise again though, next year, when Charles Saatchi's new gallery, in which he will figure prominently, opens in the former GLC headquarters on the banks of the Thames, a stone's throw from the Tate.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: art; damien; deadcows; hirst; sheep
In case you are wondering, this is a follow up to the following article:

Hirst sorry for praising September 11 hijackers (HOLD MUH BEER, IT'S ART ALERT)

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 09/21/2002 6:31:33 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: schmelvin; MJY1288; MozartLover; Teacup; rdb3; fivekid; jjm2111; LonePalm; Gracey; Aric2000; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 09/21/2002 6:32:01 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
His "interest in wounds" included pictures of burns victims and those affected by venereal disease.

Anyone who thinks STD's are 'sexy' have some serious issues going on!

3 posted on 09/21/2002 6:34:47 AM PDT by Happygal
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To: Happygal
Anyone who thinks STD's are 'sexy' have some serious issues going on!

Well here are some pictures:


The famous cow sawed in half


The "Medicine Cabinets" - or, "How to Rip Off Art Buyers Without Much Effort"


Hirst's "Mother and Child"

I will refrain from posting his pictures of wounds and STDs.

Regards, Ivan

4 posted on 09/21/2002 6:39:29 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
I will refrain from posting his pictures of wounds and STDs.

Thanks! It's not long after lunch! :-)

5 posted on 09/21/2002 6:42:09 AM PDT by Happygal
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To: MadIvan
'wash his mind out w/soap'
6 posted on 09/21/2002 6:50:36 AM PDT by 1234
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To: 1234
'wash his mind out w/soap'

That assumes he has a mind to wash out.

Regards, Ivan

7 posted on 09/21/2002 6:55:48 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
Discretion being the better part of valor...it appears modern art (patrons) have no such lofty ideals
8 posted on 09/21/2002 6:56:55 AM PDT by joesnuffy
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To: MadIvan
People like this need to be locked up, put away for their own safety. Those that say that this is art, they need to be locked away as well. People like that do not belong in a free society. They belong in a nut house, with NICE small rubber rooms and nice attendants to take care of them.
9 posted on 09/21/2002 7:01:05 AM PDT by Aric2000
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To: Aric2000
People like this need to be locked up, put away for their own safety. Those that say that this is art, they need to be locked away as well. People like that do not belong in a free society. They belong in a nut house, with NICE small rubber rooms and nice attendants to take care of them.

Fortunately most of these people live in one section of London - Hampstead. Perhaps if we just wall it off. ;)

Regards, Ivan

10 posted on 09/21/2002 7:19:21 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
Well Ivan, I did live in Hampstead. Isn't it amazing that certain sorts tend to congeal in a homogeneous claque and then chatter on about how diverse they are? And to prove it they have to find crap and celebrate it. (The subtext here of course is that everything not of "us" is crap, but we are too elite to say so, or to admit it to ourselves.) I don't in fact blame the Hirst's of the world for providing for this need, the real onus belongs on the pretentious art and culture avant garde, as you comment so well in the body of the article. And I really did like Vindaloo, tho'. I didn't know Hirst was in on that, would have spoiled it for me. Oh well.

regards

11 posted on 09/21/2002 7:54:55 AM PDT by okiedust
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To: MadIvan
WIth a name like Damien, I guess I'm not surprised
12 posted on 09/21/2002 7:55:07 AM PDT by republicman
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To: okiedust
The biggest cause in Hampstead recently was to keep Starbucks out. Which in terms of great causes is pretty unimpressive. But they are very impressed with themselves, since Starbucks apparently decided that Hampstead wasn't worth the trouble.

The pretentous avant garde are a group that have more money than sense. It's not surprising charlatans and fools thrive in their midst.

Regards, Ivan

13 posted on 09/21/2002 7:58:51 AM PDT by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
I refuse to go any art gallery that demeans itself to the point where it displays his works - Ivan

I am with you on this, Ivan. That is the only thing we can do to preserve the culture, whatever is left of it.

The article is written about the "artist." What one sick person in our society says is of no consequence. The problem is that we hear what he says, which implies there are enough sick people that share his views.

14 posted on 09/21/2002 9:50:26 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: MadIvan
Since this is England not the U.S. I think you should have made it a, "Here, hold muh pint mate."
15 posted on 09/21/2002 9:51:08 AM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig
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To: MadIvan
Sad. The Tate gallery contains some of the greatest art in the world, including its collection of J.M.W. Turners. One of the chief characterists of postmodernism is that its followers can't tell the difference between good and evil, beauty and ugliness. How could a curator spend his time looking at those Turners, and then turn around sick schlock like that?


16 posted on 09/21/2002 9:54:46 AM PDT by Cicero
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To: Cicero
Hmmm... then maybe modern art is art after all, reflecting the postmodern "artist's" empty, black soul and brazen hypocrisy. These no-talent, "anti-capitalist" (con)artists are laughing all the way to the bank.
17 posted on 09/22/2002 12:58:17 PM PDT by schmelvin
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