Damien Hirst

In class, we discussed the English artist, Damien Hirst. Damien Hirst won the Tate Gallery Turner Prize in 1995. Hirst's most famous works are centralized around death and dead animals. He is most famous for preserving animals including a shark, a sheep, and a cow. In 2007, Hirst's shark was put on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The shark was a 13-foot tiger shark in a glass tank of formaldehyde. This piece weighed a total of 22-tons. The piece was created in 1991 and was previously displayed in London, Berlin, and Austria. This work is located at the MET overlooking Central Park.

Richard Prince

Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer.  He is most known for his re-photography.  Re-photography uses appropriation as its own focus: artists pull from the works of others and the worlds they depict to create a new piece of work.  Richard Prince is known as an appropriation artist.  He uses images from the mass media, and advertisements to make new pieces of art.  He uses other artists’ images in order to make new art.  He changed the rules of authorship and ownership.  Some people believe that since he did not create the original images, he did not create the art.  However, rearranging other pieces of art should be considered art.  Collages are rearranging pictures from mass media and advertisements and should be considered art.  It was that particular artists’ idea to arrange the pictures in that way to make the artwork and therefore that artist should be recognized for their work.  Below are examples of Richard Prince’s artwork, some of which resemble collages.  

Installation Art

Installation art is another type of art that we discussed in class.  I enjoyed talking about this type of art and looking at all the different examples of this art that is exhibited in museums around the world.  In class we looked at Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern.  After looking at various installation artists online, I found many pieces that I thought were interesting.  One artist whose work I enjoyed looking at was Yayoi Kusama.  She is Japanese artist whose paintings and sculptures are environmental installations.  They often involve the use of polka dots and bright colors.  Her works is abstract and conceptual.  Some examples of her art can be seen below.  I really liked her work because of the bright colors and the use of polka dots.