DAMIEN HIRST (BRITISH B.1965) §
UNTITLED (FROM LONDON, GROUP PORTFOLIO)
£1,400
Auction: 15 March 2017 at 11:00 GMT
Description
1992, screenprint
Dimensions
84cm x 60cm (33in x 23.5in)
Footnote
Note: The offered work, Untitled, was Damien Hirst's first ever print. It was made for the landmark portfolio 'London', which featured the work of eleven young, emerging artists including Marc Quinn, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy and Gavin Turk; artists who had recently exploded onto the contemporary art scene, largely thanks to a series of exhibitions organised by Hirst in London in the late 1980s: Freeze, Gambler and Modern Medicine. The portfolio was conceived as a portable exhibition of this emerging generations' work and was published by Paragon Press in an edition of sixty-five, plus artist proofs. Copies of the portfolio now belong to many major museums, including Tate, which has edition No. 6.
Hirst's contribution depicts a set of rocks against a varnished, pink backdrop. The structured layout of the rocks references an organisational grid format, a characteristic method of Hirst's, which also appears in his series of 'Spot' paintings and medicine cabinets. Hirst has claimed that the arrangement reminded him of geography illustrations from school textbooks, indicating an appreciation for science and sense of nostalgia that also permeates his other series.