Death Explained & Death Denied -Two major & ground-breaking works by Damien Hirst.
Today’s Inspiration & Artist of the Day is the English artist Damien Hirst. It is not a coincidence he is Christina Gurunian’s recent muse in the era of a pandemic, where death & mortality are central and have desensitized the entire population. Death is a key theme for the artist. But can death really be rationalized or explained? Perhaps not, but let’s dive into the dark and fascinating world of Damien Hirst.
Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images.
Damien Steven Hirst born in 1965 is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. Hirst is one of the most trailblazing and successful living artists, his art is characterized as being unique, distinctive, and is considered to be one of the foundations of contemporary art.
Death and mortality are central themes in the works of Damien Hirst and they can be found in series of artworks where dissected animals are preserved in formaldehyde. Most famous of these works being The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a clear display case.
For the Love of God, is another work created by Damien Hirst where he uses a human skill with real teeth attached to it, the skull is coated in platinum and encrusted with over 8k diamonds. According to Hirst, this series represented the ultimate victory over death
The skull is also utilized in ’Til Death Do Us Part series where the classical concept of the skull as an emblem of death and decomposition is transformed into a magnificent token of the inevitability of death.
Yet another series by the artist associated with death and mortality is “The Cure” which showcases medical pills in glowing Pop Art colors. The pill in “The Cure” series is a painkiller with a high possibility of addiction.
