Damien Hirst and Damien Hirst similarities and differences

The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of Artists as Intellectuals

The Italian renaissance elevated artists from manual laborers to intellectuals. This allowed them to charge fees for their artistic work and thereby amass money. This renaissance lasted into the modern era, though the rise of a dynamic market for fine in the late nineteenth century caused rates to become a topic of public debate. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol defied the revival tradition by not only painting scenes of paper money but also openly expressing his desire for economic prosperity. Another contemporary artist is Damien Hirst who followed Warhol’s art model who is viewed as materialistic considering his high prices for his artistic work. in this paper therefore I will be looking at this two artists who broke the norm in the industry, I will compare and contrast their attributes and contributions.

Consumer Culture and Repetition in the Works of Warhol and Hirst

Both Warhol and Hirst were concerned with consumer culture, employed factory workers in making their art work and were repetitive. In Gallery Bastian’s exhibition we are presented with between the two artists, Damien Hirst, the pioneer of the Young British Artists and Andy Warhol, the leading role of American Pop Art. Warhol’s “Electric Chair” and Hirst’s “The Stations of the Cross” were exhibited bringing out the theme of death. In his graphic cycle Warhol frequently presents the observer with the empty implementation machine – yet he definitely chooses an obtrusive colouring that is normally related to consumer culture. For Warhol, hell and heaven are just a breath away. In this cycle, the emotional chair becomes a symbol for death itself. Hirst’s graphic cycle deals with the conventional Stations of the Cross – quotations from the Gospels make allusion to their origin. The unambiguous emphasis on pharmaceuticals and their binding embodies the therapeutic assurance of modern medicine. Hirst no longer sees science and religion as opponents since to him science emerges as religion and religion emerges as science. Warhol and Hirst have similar approach to art since they use unique ideas in making their art. For example, Warhol at one bring about urine art where another person provides the urine. They use assistants to help the complete their works an aspect that they cherish and perceive that this does not affect their reputation and value of their work. They express comfort with working with their assistants to produce their art work since they do not affect the importance neither value of the art either now or later but rather makes the work finer. The factory style applied by both Damian Hirst and Andy Warhol symbolize a vast break from the conventional approaches of art production and also consumption. This involves combining brand management and market-oriented focus replaced native biased value of art, its aesthetic quality and admiration as a driver of value, and even the artistic skill and ability required in its production with a focus on trademark, management of client’s demand and preferences, and influencing the art market itself through commercial ability.

Hirst’s Artistic Business Strategies

Hirst is considered as one of the most market-savvy artists of all time since there is little correlation with the quality of his work and the exorbitant prices that he regularly charge. In fact Hirst is just a little involved in the production of his art. He has an array of assistant who uses his easily duplicated framework to design and make much iteration of established models of art, they then sell them at very high prices in both auction setting and market. Hirst has a poor painting skill a character that he openly confess, he uses this defend his act of employing assistants, he argues that if he is to do painting in his art, then it would be the poorest thus making his work look shoddy. Additionally, Hirts art can be viewed as simplistic and a replica that utilizes little capability. Hirst is found to justify his factory by arguing that the whole ideas are his and his assistant are just to bring them to reality but they do not create them.

The Range of Hirst’s Artworks

Generally, Hirst produces sis different art categories. The tank piece dubbed the Natural History series, involves varies dead animals preserved that consistently command high prices with the notion that they show the disparity between death and life. This is despite that many of his work are a replica that destroys the values of uniqueness. His other work includes the cabinet series that involves collection of surgical tool and pill bottles from pharmacy medicine cabinet. His most selling work is spot painting that has brought him great fame. This is extended by his spin painting that involves spilling paint on a revolving pottery wheel that is easily produced. Finally, his butterfly paintings are simply collages made of thousands of dissected butterfly wings; this replicates the theme of death and life.

Warhol’s Pop Art and Commercialization of Art

Hirts prowess in marketing transcends the art world; he has ventured clothing line and had a short lived club in New York. He uses the factory setting to commercialize his art products by producing his work in masses, however this brings out an arbitrary meaning to the public that is easily carried away marketing ability as well as the common herd mentality.

Warhol’s Approach to Art and Marketing

On the other hand, Andy Warhol is identified with his Pop art and is known to be the father of pop art. He had a philosophy that in turn drove him into content repetition. He started art revolution by minimizing his role in his own production and indicated that he wanted to be a machine. Different from Hirts, his marketing strategy involved making his art work like commodity that one had once owned or a need for daily commercial experience and making them into art through screen printing and then producing them in mass through a repetitive format. Warhol become a brand in every imaginable war. With a signature red-rim glasses and silver wig, he turned into a brand and a product. Different from Hirst who did not publicly show interest in financial success, Warhol public showed interest in making more money and went to an extent of printing it. Even after his death we can still envision how highly he was commercialized he can be viewed as a celebrity artist. Before applying the factory method he used to make his art work without assistance works that we very significant, valuable and rare compared to his later works, this is different from Hirst whose art work were all done by his assistants. In his marketing Warhol used his appearance in merchandising his product, this made him a brand. By late 60’s Warhol’s personality in relation to his art was more significant and famous.

Warhol’s Most Celebrated Artwork - Marilyn Monroe

Warhol’s most celebrated art work is the portrait of Marilyn Monroe that he made n hearing about her death, the portrait consists of five rows each of ten pictures. He wished to achieve some kind of artistic alchemy that is by transforming ordinary painting into real cash. He loved few things better thus he bartered his art for objects that he felt had more value in his own eyes. Additionally, he yearned to transmute all that he touched into something of financial worth. Basically, most of his art involved commerce and financial instruments of exchange a technique that he reinforced in images.

Warhol’s Perspective on Business and Art

In his book, ”The Philosophy of Andy Warhol”, Warhol portrays that he did not consider painting as a honorable profession but however, he was enthusiastic to discuss the relationship between business and art. He made commissioned silkscreen portraits, wooing potential customers was an art that made him more a socialite since he attended to various dinner parties. Here he could find clients most of whom were long term customers and who paid well an act that many artistic viewed as being a slave to the rich. This is different from Hirst marketing method though the two did not live in the same era. Different from Hirst who was not good in painting, Warhol ventures much in painting a career that he grew right from his graduation and mastered it, most of his artwork involves portrait paintings.

Work Cited

Galenson, David. Artists and the market: from Leonardo and Titian to Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. No. w13377. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007.

Warhol, Andy. The philosophy of Andy Warhol: from A to B and back again. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.

Enhuber, Marisa. “How is Damien Hirst a cultural entrepreneur.” Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts 3.2 (2014): 3-20.