How we work: Damien Hirst, artist

Hirst has three assistants working solely on the butterfly pictures - he's Britain's biggest importer.

Waldemar Januszczak went to visit Hirst's new studio in Lambeth in March 2005, and found him rotating assistants on his new photo-realistic paintings to ensure that the authorial hand remains identifiably his, rather than theirs':

The new painting studio is the size of a large parish church. Though perhaps taller. Stuck to the walls in a ring, as if by centrifugal force, is an assortment of boiler-suited assistants, carefully dabbing away. That's photorealism for you. It can't be done from a distance. Damien's in a boiler suit too, and takes a bit of spotting. He looks well. A couple of pounds heavier, perhaps. Lots more polar-bear hair in the barnet. But he's still on the wagon, and it is still giving him energy to burn. Usually I would let him gabble at me for a while before turning to his art, because Damien is such an entertaining gabbler. But I simply cannot believe what I see when I enter, and brush past him to take a closer look. Of all the things that this gore-splattered chameleon could have become, becoming a photorealist is perhaps the least likely. [...]

Damien explains how it works. First he identifies a photograph that he wants to re-create. Then he gets his people to phone up and get permission to use it, while never revealing it's for Damien Hirst. [...] The teams of assistants do most of the bread-and-butter copying — "If it was me I'd paint it monochrome and stick a fag packet in the middle" — and Damien patrols the results, jazzing up this and that: a dab here, a daub there. He's just been working on the blood pouring down from a football hooligan's face and takes me over to inspect his handiwork. He's been adding glazes. Making it look more bloody.

Don't the assistants get upset when he dabs about with their paintings? Doesn't he sometimes spoil what's there? All the time, he giggles, proudly, but they are not their paintings, they're his. And to ensure this is clear, he swaps the assistants around from picture to picture so nobody is ever responsible for the whole thing. Smart strategy.

More how we work.

Comments

[Stephen]

I worked on one of Damiens spot paintings around the mid 80's. Actually I was working for an art collector, a young chap who had recently inherited several millions of dollars who was turning his L.A. home into his own private art gallery. While he probably had a decent eye for artwork, he wasnt so good about paying people,( various labourers that were doing the work ) some of which were getting a little upset. ( one electrician put a chicken bomb up in the cieling cavity through a hole cutout for recessed lighting ) ( a chicken bomb is a piece of chicken in a tightly sealed jam jar containing windex, or some liquid in which it festers for several weeks before exploding the jar omitting the most dreadfull stench )....I on the other hand found myself re-painting in one of the colored spots carefully with household emulsion, ( It was a decent sized canvas, and I have often wondered if he, or anyone ever noticed the slight change ) It wasnt untill several years later that I realized the probable value of that painting, but when I think of it get a little smirk, as I never did get fully paid.

[Stephen]

I worked on one of Damiens spot paintings around the mid 80's. Actually I was working for an art collector, a young chap who had recently inherited several millions of dollars who was turning his L.A. home into his own private art gallery. While he probably had a decent eye for artwork, he wasnt so good about paying people,( various labourers that were doing the work ) some of which were getting a little upset. ( one electrician put a chicken bomb up in the cieling cavity through a hole cutout for recessed lighting ) ( a chicken bomb is a piece of chicken in a tightly sealed jam jar containing windex, or some liquid in which it festers for several weeks before exploding the jar omitting the most dreadfull stench )....I on the other hand found myself re-painting in one of the colored spots carefully with household emulsion, ( It was a decent sized canvas, and I have often wondered if he, or anyone ever noticed the slight change ) It wasnt untill several years later that I realized the probable value of that painting, but when I think of it get a little smirk, as I never did get fully paid.

[Andrew Campbell]

Take a look at this...

http://www.andrew-campbell.com

[Justin]

Take a look at Andrew Campbell's work - indeed...Amazing stuff!

[Stephen]

Just seen Andrew Campbell's latest "post-9/11" work @ http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=53547A99-C1CE-8F5A-6EDA266A92999C98

Better than anything I've seen in years...

[fedupwithshitart]

Campbell is on the right path - agreed....but why just reproduce the same f**king poster? has he no imagination? There are more urgent issues to be made of which company is funded by which...start with the US government...and work your way up - jesus christ...kids should be learning this at pre-school.
Police state TODAY....SLAVERY tomorrow.
I wont start on the Hirst geezer...killing endangered species for vast profit...no fret..all that toxic formaldehyde will kill him young - there is a god.

[Sue Williams]

I thought about using real butterflies in my art after browsing the ones on sale from Thailand in taxidermy section on eBay. I was inspired by a painting of a man with butterflies stuck to his face(I have forgotten who that famous painting was by. Dali?). Butterflies are not a PC medium, but they are such pretty colours artists just want to colour in with them. I am an eBay artist. I am lucky to get £30 for my art. I would like to visit Toddington Manor to create a sculpture/installation called eBay Art (with eBay Art painted loosley on the sides). It would comprise a skip, and would be filled with eBay art. Visitors to Toddington Gallery could degrade themselves by rumaging through the skip for a piece of FREE art, and with permission take the art away with them. Then when the skip was empty Damien could buy some more. Cool. Sue Williams www.galleryonthe.net (please join my site Damien to give it star kudos)

[anjaneyulu]

pure shit

[anjaneyulu]

cheapest shit

[rodcorp]

Anjaneyulu, you seem to find either Hirst's work (or the other comments here?) to be both the purest and the cheapest shit. Do you mean shit of both high quality or low quality? Is pure shit better than cheap shit - did your position harden between 10:38 and 10:40? What would be not-shit? In your economy, you really haven't been clear.

Some of your ink drawings are pretty good. Your recent paintings remind me a little of Lisa Milroy. I see a lot of tools-of-the-trade being fairly accurately but very flatly depicted, so I'll make a risky leap and assume you value technical proficiency and craftsmanship over ideas in art. Me, I like both.

[TAR ART RAT]

I am glad to hear that Mr. Hirst has so much help, after all he is a terribly busy person.
;p

[francesco]

the only way to create a real art is to do not beleve of to be an artist, but just apiece of art.

[world wide web]

The Tabloid Art Ready Reference (How to Be Entertaining In New Ways) Copyright © 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emKF_Tb5JTU

[SarahG]

And yet, again and again the continually appears as being one of the most prominent artists of our time:

http://www.makefive.com/categories/entertainment/art/boldest-works-of-art-in-recent-history

[kirsty]

i love his work!
i think it sends lots of mixed messages and its always interesting to explore into these!

[ken]

just want to know how mother Mary is.

best wishes Damien......

[ken]

same for,,Bradley and Gabby,,,,

[International Artist and published poet Andy Powell]

Damion please see myspace.com/artistandypowell

trying to get intouch but no direct contact for you

this site has bio pics etc please get intouch,best wishes Andy Powell

[manish pushkale]

hi, being an artist from india, a land on fire from its east, west, north and south..would like to do a project on damien's image in relation to a concept of indian sensibity in my own way.....