Damien Hirst

DAMIEN HIRST

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF DEATH

Spectacularly, iconoclastically, Damien Hirst's works stage existential themes like life and death. High and popular culture are on an equal footing in Hirst whose art challenges good taste and what is permitted in art.

The Four Elements (Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, Green and Blue), 2005

Description
A large canvas in four parts with exotiv butterflies in different colours.

About the work
From a distance the large painting in four parts is beautiful and harmonious. Four identical swarms of butterflies in seductive colours have settled on four large canvases in strong poster-like colours. The result is highly decorative.

Closer scrutiny reveals that the butterflies are not painted on the canvases. They are real, dead butterflies that have been stuck to the wet paint. Suddenly the four large surfaces look like a beautiful, but banal and devious death trap.
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Hirst's art in general
Hirst interprets the universal, existential themes running through art history, making sure to break every taboo in the process. He is conscious of the provocative elements and utilises controversies to force a reaction from the audience.
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Literature
"Damien Hirst", Christian Gether og Marie Laurberg (red.), ARKEN Bulletin vol. 4, 2009
"Damien Hirst, Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life", Arthur C. Danto, Straus and Giroux, Farrar 2005
"Romance in the age of uncertainty : Damien Hirst", White Cube, London, 2003
"Damien Hirst : I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now" Robert Violet, Booth-Clibborn, London, 1997