Damien Hirst – Exhibition at Tate Modern in London

With the first substantial survey of Damien Hirst’s work ever held in the UK, Tate Modern presents one of today’s most important and most controversial artists. Damien Hirst first came to public attention in London in 1988 when he conceived and curated „Freeze“, an exhibition of his own work and that of his friends and fellow Goldsmiths College students, staged in a disused London warehouse. Many of the works he created at that time will be on display at Tate Modern for the first time since the 1980s. In the nearly quarter of a century since then, Hirst has gone on to become one of the most influential artists of his generation.

Bringing together over seventy of the artist’s seminal works, the exhibition includes key sculptures from the early 1990s, such as „The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living“, in which a shark is suspended in formaldehyde, and „Mother and Child Divided“, a four-part sculpture of a bisected cow and calf. Also on show are important vitrines, such as „A Thousand Years“ (1990), in which the cycle of life is represented by a cow’s head, flies and insect-o-cutor. Alongside these sculptures are cabinets displaying rows of pills, medical packaging and surgical implements, as well as paintings made throughout Hirst’s career from his spot, spin, butterfly and fly series. In addition, two major installations are on display: „In and Out of Love“ (1991), which includes a room full of live butterflies and has not been shown in its entirety since its creation, and „Pharmacy“ (1992).

Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol, UK. He lives and works in London and Devon. He is one of the most prominent artists to have emerged from the British art scene in the 1990s. Among other awards, Hirst won the Turner Prize in 1995. Curated by Ann Gallagher, Head of Collections (British Art), Tate, with Loren Hansi Momodu, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern and sponsored by the Qatar Museums Authority, the exhibition provides a journey through two decades of Hirst’s inventive practice. It also forms part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.

Damien Hirst

Exhibition, 4 April – 9 September 2012

Tate Modern, London

Sponsored by the Qatar Museums Authority

www.tate.org.uk

Images:

Sympathy in White Major - Absolution II (detail), 2006

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011

Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011

Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

Lullaby, the Seasons, 2002 (Detail) 

Glass, stainless steel, steel, aluminium, nickel, bismuth and cast resin, coloured plaster and painted pills with dry transfers

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2012

Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates