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Damien Hirst (British, b.1965)
LOT ID: 72402
The Dead, 2009

Etching / Engraving, Two color foil block print
28.35 х 20.08 in. cm.
Signed, inscribed, by the artist and numbered.
Edition 15
Lot description
Unframed and in mint condition, 'The Dead' is a gleaming purple and silver grinning skull from Damien Hirst, in his exploration of a post-modern Vanitas.This print is only available in an edition of 15 and sold out within the first few weeks of release. Beautiful and macabre- the work riffs on Joyce's famous novel "The Dead."

Contemporary British artist Damien Hirst’s (b.1965) œuvre is at once abstract, conceptual, romantic, baroque and minimal. Hirst, winner of the 1995 prestigious Tate Gallery Turner Prize, has been the most prominent and notorious member of the young British artists (YBAs). While still a student at Goldsmith's College in 1988, he curated the now renowned student exhibition, Freeze, featuring his friends' and his own work, and held in East London. With this exhibition, Hirst brought together a group of young artists who would come to define cutting-edge contemporary art in the 1990s. Hirst's work has generated enormous controversy, in part for its morbidity and fascination with medicine, which is evident in several of his series: the encased dead animals in various states of preservation, the incorporation of butterfly wings into stained glass-like images, cabinets filled with pharmaceuticals, and diamond-encrusted skulls. His art challenges the boundaries between high and low culture, art and science, and addresses the big questions of life, love, and death.

Select Public Collections:
Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
Tate Gallery (London, UK)
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, AU)
The Dead by Damien Hirst
  • The Dead by Damien Hirst
  • The Dead by Damien Hirst
  • The Dead by Damien Hirst
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Sales Results for Comparable Works

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  • Damien Hirst

    The dead: one plate (Red and green)
    color foil block print
    (H 16.3, W 11.7) in.
    (41.3 x 29.8) cm.
    Ed. 12/15
    Sold for: US$8,375
    Wednesday, January 25, 2012
    Phillips de Pury & Company New York
    Lot 00257
  • Damien Hirst

    The dead (westminster blue silver gloss skull)
    prints, mixed media
    (H 16.3, W 11.6) in.
    (41.4 x 29.5) cm.
    Ed. 7/15
    Sold for: US$5,290
    Friday, December 09, 2011
    artnet Auctions
    Lot 59146
  • Damien Hirst

    The dead
    prints, embossing
    (H 28.4, W 20.1) in.
    (72.0 x 51.0) cm.
    Ed. 15
    Sold for: US$6,900
    Wednesday, March 31, 2010
    artnet Auctions
    Lot 23246
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