Who is Damien Hirst

Image source: D Repubblica.it

WHO IS DAMIEN HIRST

Damien Hirst was born in Bristol in 1965.
He studied Fine Arts at the Goldsmith College in London, and in 1988, while he was still a student, conceived and curated “Freeze”, a group exhibition which was the launching point for his artistic career and for a whole generation of artists called Young British Artists (o YBA).

Mother and Child Divided exhibition copy 2007 (original 1993) Image source: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T12751

Since the late 1980s Damien Hirst has used installations, sculptures, paintings and drawings to explore the relationships among art, science, life and death.
His works challenge the observer to reflect on an aspect of life which man of the second half of the 20^th century tried to forget: death and life which goes on.

In a historical moment in which human beings are absorbed in thinking about the present, Damien Hirst obliges you to think that we are part of a conveyor belt which is moving relentlessly, and where passengers always change.
Hirst’s works are animals cut in half, and coloured dots, skulls encrusted with diamonds and coloured insects.
Death and life, sorrow and joy, reality and fiction.
The beauty of his works lies in his ability to made life even out of a skull, inviting everybody to dream and use fantasy.

Damien Hirst and platinum skull Image source: https://garethleaney.wordpress.com