Damien Hirst

How immersion into a deceased neighbor’s life turned into art

Discipline: Conceptual Art

Raised in the DIY culture of punk the conceptual artist Damien Hirst grew up in Leeds. After finishing school, he spent time figuring out what to do next and finding himself. He loved to draw, so he decided to set his sights on art school. Rejected by both St. Martins, in London and Cardiff College, in Wales he got a doctor friend to let him sit in on his anatomy course at the morgue. This way he could keep sketching. He would later move to London where he painted in his spare time while holding down a construction job. (1)

His artistic practice would take a turn in a new direction when his neighbor, an older gentleman by the name of Mr. Barnes disappeared. Hirst and a friend decided to check up on him. When they went to his place they found 60 years worth of the guy’s life piled up in the tiny apartment. Magazines, hundreds of empty toothpaste tubes and a ton of worthless stuff. Mr. Barnes wouldn’t return as he passed away. Hirst convinced the building manager to allow him to move the stuff to his apartment when the building manager planned to toss it away. Hirst started making his early collages with Mr. Barnes’ old stuff. He described the experience as becoming him (Mr. Barnes). His collages would ultimately get him accepted into Goldsmiths’ College where he rounded up other artists to create the “Freeze” art show. (2)

The advertising executive and Art Collector Charles Saatchi would attend “Freeze” several times and would buy Hirsts’ “A Thousand Years” and also put up £60,000 for him to make his shark sculpture, “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.” The art world took notice of not only Hirst but other Young British Artists that participated in “Freeze”. (3). Oddly enough Hirst’s creative breakthrough came through the death of a friend. Death has remained a central theme in his art.

References.

1. Tomkins, Calvin. Lives of the Artists. New York: Henry Holt, 2010. p.6 Print.2. Idem p.8.

3. Idem p.12.

Originally published at blog.viktorbezic.com.