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Steven Hirst Research Paper

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Damien Steven Hirst is an English conceptual and installation artist. One of the richest artist in the United Kingdom, an estimated £215 million. Born on June 7, 1965, Bristol, England, a member of and most prominent of a group named Young British Artists. A group of visual artists that began to exhibit together in London. They dominated the art scene in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. He studied at Goldsmiths, University in London from ‘86 to ‘89. During Hirst’s second year Goldsmiths College, he organized an independent student exhibition called Freeze. The lines between life and death were often the main theme in most Hirst’s work. Infamous for having artworks that include dead animals, cows, sheeps, and a shark. For this reason, Hirst …show more content…

The artwork is currently sitting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The tiger shark was caught at Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia, which costed Hirst £6,000. The entire artwork ended up with a total of £50,000. The shark quickly embedded itself in the national psyche as an icon of everything that was good — or bad — about contemporary art, depending on your viewpoint (Sarah Kent). For most people, this shark was the icon of everything that is bad about contemporary art, if you can call it that. Does this man go out of his way to hunt a wonderful creature as the tiger shark? Slaughtering animals for no other reason, but so use them in art is despicable. Strong emotions are going through many individual’s minds on Hirst’s work, either good or bad. For this reason, Hirst was dubbed the "bad boy" of British art and scarcely a week went by without an article appearing in the press outlining his outrageous behavior (Kent). This exhibition is touching on the subject matter of death, with death itself in the “art”. An individual who might admire the work would look that this and say that having a creature that can possibly end your life within seconds, just frozen in time is something to reflect on. Which can be a valid argument, but numerous of individuals wouldn’t come to an agreement with the need of the slaughtering of a wonderful being, such as the tiger

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