Today is Damien Hirst’s birthday so with that in mind we thought we would highlight some of the amazing works produced by the Birthday boy.
‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’
This tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde was exhibited in the first of a series of Young British Artists shows at the Saatchi Gallery (and purchased by Charles Saatchi) which established Damien Hirst and other YBA’s. He won the Turner prize in 1995 and his piece Mother and Child Divided being the focal point of the exhibition again featuring animals preserved in formaldehyde.
If you love this shark you can have it on your wall at home with this amazing lenticular. The 3D properties of the lenticular are used to enhance the life like appearance of the shark.
Spot paintings
The spot paintings are amongst Hirst’s most widely recognised works and first appeared at his 1988 Freeze show painted directly onto the warehouse walls. The largest series of these paintings take their titles from the chemical company Sigma-Aldrich’s catalogue ‘Biochemicals for Research and Diagnostic Reagents’, a book Hirst stumbled across in the early 1990’s.
We have a great selection of spot paintings in a variety of sizes, styles and colours as well as a variety of printing methods.
Image Credit: Courtesy Other Criteria. © Damien Hirst & Science Ltd.
Pharmacy
Following on from the Pharmaceutical names of his spot paintings Damien Hirst has used a variety of Pharmaceutical l objects in his work including the recreation of an entire pharmacy in his 1992 installation. He has since created oversize pill sculptures, images and even wallpaper. He also has had two restaurant interiors designed around his pharmacy works.
We have a great selection of oversize pill sculptures from his Schizophrenogenesis exhibition as well as the series of pill Silkscreens.
Butterflies
Butterflies are another big theme in Damien Hirst’s works, both live butterflies in his installations as well as ones stuck on canvases. Hirst has had a career-long fascination with the beauty, fragility and symbolism of butterflies.
We have some great examples of Hirst's Butterflies including the Sanctum series of butterflies arranged in the style of stained glass windows, individual butterfly etchings and the book of his amazing foil block Souls butterflies.
For The Love of God
The 2007 piece ‘For the Love of God’ is one of Hirst’s best known works a diamond encrusted platinum cast of a human skull. Costing £14 million to produce, the work was first shown at the White Cube gallery in London. The base for the work is a human skull bought in a shop in Islington. It is thought to be that of a 35-year-old European who lived between 1720 and 1810. The teeth in the work come from this original skull.
We have a beautiful frame lenticular of this work capturing the 3D nature of the original and set on a dramatic black background.
