Research the art work of Damien Hirst, in particular his work 'For the love of God'(2008), a diamond encrusted skull.
Discuss how Hirst's persona and work relate to the Renaissance concepts of Mercantillism and the (increased) status of the artist.
Damien Steven Hirst, is an artist from a group known as “Young British Artist” (YBAs), he then dominated the art society in Britain in the early 1990’s. His work started to blossom and develop during 1987-1997 in the contemporary art. According to the Artchieve (n.d), from http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hirst.html
"Hirst' work is an examination of the processes of life and death: the ironies, falsehoods and desires that we mobilize to negotiate our own alienation and mortality. His production can be roughly grouped into three areas: paintings, cabinet sculptures and the glass tank pieces.”
Hirst’ work can relate to the early renaissance of mercantilism by one of his most recent works titled “For the Love of God” featured in Beyond Belief, an exhibition opened in London at the White Cube gallery. This art piece was a platinum human skull filled with 8,601 diamonds, and was priced for $100 million or 75 euro’s and “weighing a total of 1,106.18 carats. Approximately £15,000,000 worth of diamonds was used” (Damien Hirst: Wikipedia.org (n.d) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst#cite_note-37)
His work “For the Love of God” clearly has a concept of mercantilism because of all the money that was involved and the money that Hirst receives from the people interested in his work. The diamonds that Hirst’ uses in his work, doesn’t earn him points as being the wealthiest man in the contemporary art in our modern world today and by how much he can afford into his artwork, although I believe that being wealthy in our society today is calculated by how much money a person has in their bank account, therefore we can see the renaissance concepts of mercantilism being reflected through Damien Hirst’ work. In my opinion, Hirst’ persona, work and status for an artist is very wild and liberated, allowing him to make and do whatever he pleases, but still earn credit as one of the leading artists in contemporary art.
