2008
Sotheby's, London.
Group of 23 double-sided cards, each with a color reproduction on the front side and the auction title on the back. All glossy color on heavy card stock in varying sizes and shapes reflecting actual artwork. In original padded envelope. Variable sizes
$ 2,000
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Emerging on the international art scene in the late 1980s, Damien Hirst (b.1965) is renowned for his installations, sculptures, paintings, and drawings that examine the complex relationships between art and beauty, religion and science, and life and death. In September 2008, Hirst made the unprecedented move for a living artist of bypassing his long-standing galleries and selling a complete show directly to the public. A two-day auction of new works held at Sotheby's, London, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, raised a little over $200 million in sales, exceeding all expectations and setting a record for a single-artist auction. Not without controversy, the sale has been both praised and condemned as a marketing and media/communications art performance. Hirst has defended the concept of this sale by stating: “People always worry that money somehow tarnishes art, but I always thought it was disgusting that people like Van Gogh never made any money. It's important to make sure that the art takes precedence over the money. Most people worry that somehow you lose your integrity. Frank said to me a long time ago: ‘Always have to make sure that you use the money to chase the art and not the art to chase the money.’ And I think that's true; you have to look at that very carefully.”
