Revealed to the general public by advertiser and collector Charles Saatchi in the 1990s, Damien Hirst has established himself as the most famous of the "Young British Artists". After studying at Goldsmith College of art, he had his first solo exhibition in 1991 (In and Out of Love) and, in 1995, was awarded the Turner Prize. His fascination with death, which dates back to the years when he worked in a morgue to finance his studies, is expressed in his work through the major place he gives to the themes of Memento mori and Vanitas vanitatum. From one film to the next, Hirst dialogues with death in a tone that oscillates between humour, sulphurous, outrageous and irreverent. After his famous cuts of sharks (Death explained) or cows kept in large windows filled with formalin (the first ones dating from the 1990s), Hirst once again caused a scandal with For the Love of God (2008), a platinum copy of an 18th century human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds. This contemporary vanity, sold for $100 million, has become the "most expensive work ever sold by a living artist". As a good troublemaker in the art market, Hirst was able to push the lesson of merchandise and Warhol's success to its climax, of which he is now one of the greatest heirs.
Lot 85 - Damien Hirst (né en 1965)
Beautiful Apocatequil narcissism painting, 2012
Mixed media on canvas
Signée doublement, porte le cachet de l'artiste, datée et titrée au dos
Unique Piece
213 x 213 cm
Hirst explored the rhetoric of the Memento mori through the Beautiful mars cathexis painting series, in which the skull motif emerges at the centre of a real chromatic explosion. The artist uses spin painting, a pictorial process that uses centrifugal force to distribute the paint on its support. By using this technique, he gives a performative dimension to the work, since the distribution of colours is randomly delivered (should this be seen as a nod to Pollock's dripping?). He also appreciates this process for its neutral character, where any expression of the artist's subjectivity is banned. Damien Hirst had a great pleasure in sharing the execution of his spin paintings with friends and family, from David Bowie to children in schools: "I like to do spin paintings with children. I have a spin machine that I brought to my children's school so that everyone can enjoy it. The pleasure they have in participating in the creation of a work of art values them, while the fact of participating in the elaboration of a painting whose final result they ignore is very surprising. They immortalize a feeling, they feel a palette of emotions, a fleeting and colorful happiness that leaves like traces in time, like footprints in the snow." (Damien Hirst).
With Beautiful Apocatequil narcissism painting (2012), Hirst explores with great technical dexterity the spin painting: he plays on the contrast between the unbridled explosion of painting and the morbid, even threatening, character of the skull. While having the value of an exorcism, this realization reminds us, against a colourful and joyful background, that death lurks behind all beauty.
