Everything started with an order from Charles Saatchi. It was in the early 90s, and this ad magnate and art collector ordered a very specific piece from Damien Hirst. He payed 50,000 pounds to create an inspired shark sanctuary. It would be the first in a long series of animals sacrificed on the altar of art. In 1991, Damien Hirst asked Australian fishers to capture and kill a shark, a beast that\u2019s 4.25 meters long. The tiger shark, which cost Saatchi 28,000 pounds, travelled for months in a specially equipped cargo hold before arriving frozen on the banks of the Thames. In 1992, the piece was exhibited for the first time at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Shock, dismay, fascination, the piece soon became emblematic of the strategy of provocation identifiable with the club of Young British Artists. \u201cIt became the logo of England in the 80s,\u201d says Gordon Burn, writer for the Guardian. \u201cIt was everywhere: in political cartoons as well as in ads.\u201d An icon was born.<\/p>\n
But Damien Hirst was more interested by death than by scandal – a phenomenon that comes naturally when working with such a subject. \u201cI wanted to make art that was more real, that truly evokes human nature. I wanted to put a real shark in a gallery instead of painting it on a canvas or projecting images of it. This brutality was necessary. Maybe I watched \u2018Jaws\u2019 too many times,\u201d he joked. Hirst actually submerged the tiger shark in close to 850 liters of formaldehyde to question death, the death of a creature that elicits fear in mankind like none other. \u201cI liked the idea of using something to describe a feeling,\u201d that is to say, the obscenity of death. Each of Damien Hirst\u2019s artworks pushes the question of death – occasionally attempting to give it a face, but always forcing us to look it in the eyes. \u201cWe don\u2019t like to be put in front of our own decomposition,\u201d he adds. But these pieces give off a real beauty – the beauty of life set in shades of green and blue.<\/p>\n
Now, years later, the shark has decomposed. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as scary,\u201d the artist reminisces. \u201cYou could see that it wasn\u2019t real. It didn\u2019t have any weight.\u201d So the British artist got back to work – something close to a scientific experiment that required several specialists working in old British hangars from World War II. The idea: replace the decomposing tiger shark. So another shark was hunted and, during the operation, the air was so toxic that the site was shut off behind steel doors with special access codes. No one, not even the artist, was authorized to see the shark without wearing protective gear. After injecting formaldehyde straight into the animal\u2019s veins, the artwork was able to find a new buyer who, for the sum of 12 million Euros, acquired one of the most emblematic works of art of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
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Everything started with an order from Charles Saatchi. It was in the early 90s, and this ad magnate and art collector ordered a very specific piece from Damien Hirst. He payed 50,000 pounds to create an inspired shark sanctuary. It would be the first in a long series of animals sacrificed on the altar of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[6047,1542,19038,19040,9709,19039,19041],"class_list":["post-16070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-art","tag-animals","tag-art","tag-charles-saatchi","tag-damien-hirsts-shark","tag-damien-hirst","tag-gordon-burn","tag-shark"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n