Hirst explains: ‘The fear of this shark is an unreasonable fear but it’s a good way to tap into that fear of death, which is a reasonable fear.’Ī commission for gallerist and YBA patron, Charles Saatchi, the work was sold for around US$12 million in 2004. The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living (1991) is certainly one of Hirst’s most famous works, if not the most famous.Ī large-scale installation first exhibited at London’s Saatchi Gallery, it cost around £50,000 to make.Ĭomprising a Great White shark encased in a translucent vitrine or tank, itself filled with the preservative formaldehyde, the work is an icon of both the Young British Artist and Britart movements. These were entitled In And Out of Love and Internal Affairs, and were held at the Woodstock Street Gallery and Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) respectively.ĭeeply morbid - and possibly stomach-churning - With Dead Head was instrumental in solidifying Hirst’s public image as an artist eager to broach taboos, take risks, and shock audiences.Īlthough not quite as well-known as his larger-scale works, With Dead Head sticks firmly in the minds of all those who have seen it, and represents Hirst at his subversive best. Hirst found and enlarged the photograph in 1991 - a year which saw him hold his first two solo exhibitions in London. He is seen placing his own head next to that of a corpse, severed from its body and wrapped in what appears to be a shroud.īut how did he get the photo? From the age of 16, Hirst would visit the anatomy department of Leeds Medical School, and worked part-time in a morgue. In the well-known photographic work With Dead Head (1991), Hirst indexes his early interest in both art and death - themes he has returned to time and time again throughout his over 30 year-long career. In 1986, and having been refused entry once before, Hirst began studying Fine Art at London’s Goldsmiths College. Not in the least bit academic, he struggled at school, and his art teacher begged for him to be allowed to progress onto sixth-form college so he could do his A-Levels.Īwarded an ‘E’ grade in Art - an achievement he jokingly referenced during his 1995 Turner Prize acceptance speech - Hirst later worked as a labourer in London, while continuing to make art independently. Bristol-born, Hirst grew up in Leeds during the 1960s and ‘70s.
0 kommentar(er)
