Art Marketing Attitudes of Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol

According to Don Thompson, part of Damien Hirst’s fame is built on his capability of successfully marketing his art. Explain how this branding attitude has changed the way works of art are viewed and appreciated.

Throughout the years the idea of art and what people consider to be art has changed and is forever changing. Damien Hirst as well as other contemporary artists have played a major role in redefining the meaning of art. These artists, including Hirst, have focused on marketing themselves and their ‘brand’ name rather than producing the stereotypical fine art.

Don Thompson is an economist, author and professor who teaches marketing and strategy. He is well known for the book he wrote on contemporary art called The $12 Million Stuffed Shark. In this book he talks about how and why Damien Hirst’s art is worth what it’s worth today as well as the marketing strategies of Warhol, Koons and Emin. Thompson points out that art enthusiasts and buyers have shifted their focus away from traditional art and towards contemporary art. This is shown clearly through Damien Hirst’s rise to fame.

Many would say that Hirst is not your typical artists but rather a manufacturer as he doesn’t actually touch most of his works but rather gets other people to produce his artworks under his supervision. In one of his interview he said he likes having his work produced by others while comes up with the ideas however, he would never let anyone come up with the idea. Many people criticize Hirst’s artworks due to the fact that some are copied ideas, some are not ‘traditional’ artworks and some leave a major shock factor in the presence of the artwork. So what makes branded artists such as Damien Hirst so famous? And why are their artworks valued at such high prices?

In his book, Don Thompson said that Hirst “is one of a very few artists who can claim to have altered our concept of what art and an art career be” Thompson(2012). Hirst knew how to brand himself so well that he made a lot more money from his artworks than Picasso, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali combined by the age of forty-two. When marketing himself, Hirst had 3 crucial points to cover; what kind of client he wanted to sell to, what kind of art he was going to produce and finally how he would distribute and sell his art. Damien Hirst identified that there was a new kind of buyer within the contemporary art world. He realized that these buyers were buying contemporary art not only for artistic interest but also for fun, to show off their status or even as an investment.

Hirst noticed that other contemporary artists, dealers curators and gallery owners were not catering for this new emerging type of customer. This new type of buyer played a very important part in Hirst’s rise to fame. In fact, Steve Cohen who is a hedge fund manager gave Hirst the exposure he needed at the beginning of his career by buying Hirst’s first shark sculpture. As mentioned previously, Hirst played a crucial role in redefining art, moving away from ‘traditional’ art and started to experiment with new materials that were not associated with art before, such as dead meat. Hirst pushed boundaries with his artworks and he proved that one did not have to like his artworks to buy them, his branding was enough for buyers to be intrigued and go ahead with the purchase.

Damien Hirst recognized that a curator’s role was becoming more and more important. Curators are the ones who select artworks for museums and exhibitions. Within the art industry there is not much transparency or objective opinions and therefore Hirst recognized that curators had a crucial role within the industry. Hirst himself was the artist-curator for a student exhibition called Freeze, which saw a new generation of artists which were then called Young British Artists. Another marketing strategy Hirst used to brand himself was naming his artworks. The titles of his works also had a big impact on the viewer as it explained the artwork the way Hirst meant it to be portrayed. Hirst titled his first shark ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’. In his interview of Frieze magazine Hirst stated “I like the idea of a thing to describe feeling. A shark is frightening, bigger than you are, in an environment unknown to you. It looks alive when it’s dead and dead when it’s alive” Hirst (1991).

Putting aside his fame, Hirst has and still is being heavily criticized by many critics for many reasons. One of the reasons is the fact that Hirst doesn’t actually produce his own artwork, for example from all of his 1,400 spot paintings, he only actually painted 25 of them himself. The thing that angers critics even more is that Hirst has said in the past that he doesn’t work on his artwork himself because he couldn’t be bothered and he can get away with it. Another reason as to why Hirst is heavily criticized is because some critics say his art is not only shocking but also disgusting and only appeals to the rich buyers.

Like Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol also knew how to brand himself which is how he became famous, in fact, he became a celebrity through his pop art and the way he branded himself. At the beginning of his career, Warhol was not taken seriously and several of his works were rejected however, he got his first well needed publicity break from exhibiting his thirty two hand painted Campbell’s Soup Cans with the help of Irving Blum, director of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Warhol then went on to work on silkscreen prints of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley and Jackie Kennedy. These works were seen as tragic due to the fact that these celebrities had either passed away, struggled with substance abuse or went through rough, sad times in their lives.

Warhol had a diverse marketing strategy, for starters, he marketed himself and his own image. Andy Warhol had a fascinating and memorable look, his signature look was his silver colored wig, black polo necks and faded jeans. He created an extravagant persona for himself which will be recognized for ever. Warhol did not stick to one media but experimented with different media such as painting, silkscreen printing, sculpting, filmmaking, publishing and more. His studio, The factory, was a place where Warhol collaborated with artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers. He was always open to collaboration as he learnt from others who knew how to reach the audience he wanted to reach and he welcomed feedback, sometimes even amending his artworks according to the feedback he received.

Warhol never chased the media to be featured anywhere, on the contrary, they chased him. Warhol’s extravagant persona intrigued the media, everyone wanted to discover the real Andy Warhol and the less he said, the more he attracted attention. Newspapers and magazines followed his life religiously and helped him get the exposure he needed to help him sell his artworks and that helped make him the celebrity he is today. Just like Damien Hurst, Andy Warhol produced his work with eventually little involvement in the production. He was in fact criticized for this and critics were calling him a ‘business artist’. Warhol was also criticized for his 1970’s celebrity portraits, critics were calling them commercial and unoriginal.

Marketing plays a crucial role in contemporary art, the more artists know how to sell themselves the more they will be remembered and the value of their artworks will soar. However dealers and collectors play a very important role in the success of a branded contemporary artist. In his interview with National Post, Don Thompson says that the most intelligent answer he ever got to the question of contemporary art value was from the director of Bonhams who claimed that contemporary art buyers are extremely insecure. They get their reassurance from branded artists, branded dealers as well as branded auction houses such as Sotheby’s.

A painting from a branded artist makes the buyer seem as though he has an original taste for art. A painting from a branded auction house makes the buyer look even better as not only does he seem to have cutting edge taste but it also shows the buyer’s wealth. In other words the ridiculously high value of a contemporary artwork is a result of branding by the artist, branding of the dealers (selling branded works such as Hirst pieces brands the dealer as a high end dealer) as well as the kind of buyer. This branding attitude that Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol adopted helped them brand their names, making their name iconic and remembered and studied forever.

Hirst was talented in his way of thinking and coming up with the ideas of his artworks and Warhol was talented in both technique and idea generation. What they both have in common is that they were both great self-promoters and by collaborating with other artists, curators and dealers they rose to fame, hence valuing their artwork the prices they are at now. Although both artists are heavily criticized for having other people producing their artwork as well as for other reasons, many others like myself admire both artists for the way they branded themselves. I personally find it absolutely fascinating how both Hirst and Warhol turned themselves into such iconic names, their passion for art and marketing will forever mesmerize me.