Damien Hirst, Ferrocene
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An outstanding abstract painting by renowned contemporary artist Damien Hirst
Key Features
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- An outstanding abstract painting by renowned contemporary artist Damien Hirst
- Ferrocene is part of Hirst's Pharmaceutical Series
- This series of paintings demand high prices at auction
- Hirst is the most successful contemporary artist in England
- Signed "Damien Hirst 2008" on back of canvas
- Dated 2008
- 36" high x 52" wide
Item Details
- Width:
52" Inches - Height:
36" Inches - Origin:
England/Ireland - Subject:
Miscellaneous
Damien Hirst
July 7, 1965 · British
Ferrocene
Signed "Damien Hirst 2008" on back of canvas
Gloss on Canvas
" I believe painting and all art should be ultimately uplifting for the viewer. I love colour. I feel it inside of me. It gives me a buzz. I hate taste - it's acquired." Easily recognized as one of the most famous contemporary artists of all time, Damien Hirst was the most prominent member of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene during the 1990s. Probably most renowned for the incomparable fame and controversy they garnered because of the 1997 Sensation exhibit, the YBAs created a media frenzy with Hirst easily being their most controversial and celebrated artist.
Hirst burst into the art world scene in the early 1990s with his "spot" or "Pharmaceutical" paintings, of which Ferrocene is an outstanding example. The painting, consisting of a series of grids of identically sized painted dots, deliberately tests the boundaries between art, science, and pop culture. Hirst receives a tremendous amount of critical attention for his installation works that include taxidermic elements, but it is his spot paintings which are considered by critics to be the best of his oeuvre.
Among his most widely recognized works, the spot paintings date from 1986 to 2011. Heavily influenced by the artistic legacy of Marcel Duchamp, Hirst sees the real creative act as being in the conception, not the execution. As a result, much like an old school atelier, Hirst employs more than 100 people to meet the demands of his artistic output. In this work, any physical evidence of the human hand is removed and the work appears to be a mechanical construction.
In Ferrocene the grid-like structure creates the beginning of a system in which no two colors are the same. According to Hirst, the painting is about the urge or the need to be a painter above or beyond the object of painting. In many ways these works are more like sculptures than they are like paintings. This approach has an additional scientific component and is related to Hirst's 1992 installation Pharmacy. As with other paintings in the "Pharmaceutical" series Ferrocenegets its arbitrary tile from the Sigma-Aldrich catalog Biochemicals for Research and Diagnostic Reagents. Ferrocene is an agent that exhibits anti-cancer activity in pharmaceuticals.
Medicine and drugs are recurring themes in Hirst's work, recreated as a means of altering perception and providing a temporary cure. In both Pharmacy and "The Pharmaceutical Paintings" drugs are represented as an impermanent escape from sickness and pain. With these works, medicine like art is revealed as providing a belief system of values and guarantees that is both seductive and illusory. Influenced by both the imagination and pathos of Joseph Cornell and Francis Bacon, Hirst acknowledges that much of his work emphasizes the macabre. With the spot paintings, however, he insists that despite the conceptual meaning these "paintings end up looking happy."
Born in Bristol and raised in Leeds, Hirst's eccentricity became evident when he was a child. Throughout his artistic development, he was misunderstood and often rejected. He eventually went on to study art at the prestigious Goldsmiths College of the University of London, where he was refused admittance the first time he applied. While at Goldsmiths, Hirst organized many cutting edge student exhibitions. The most successful taking place in the former Peek Freans biscuit factory where the renowned contemporary collector Charles Saatchi walked in and purchased Hirst's first animal installation on sight. In 1991, Saatchi became a major patron of Hirst's work offering to fund whatever artworks Hirst wanted to make. Saatchi continued to fund Hirst throughout his career.
Ferrocene is an exceptionally important work that represents one of the major steps in Hirst's ascension to the commanding heights of the elite art world. The series of spot paintings, along with Hirst's other works, demand unbelievably high prices at auction, and Hirst is easily the most successful contemporary artist in England. His fame far exceeds his homeland, however, and Hirst receives critical acclaim on an international level. He received the Turner Prize in 1995 and in 2008 Hirst exhibited at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in conjunction with an exhibition of paintings from the museum's collection. The Museum's director issued the statement, "Of course we do the Old Masters but we are not a 'yesterday institution' and Damien Hirst shows this in a very strong way."
In September of 2008, a Sotheby's auction of Hirst's work raised $198 million dollars, ten times higher than any existing record for a single artist's sale at Sotheby's. Hirst is in high demand on the contemporary art market with both museums and private collectors competing for his works. Although Hirst produces serial copies of many of his works, they are still incredibly difficult to acquire because of the artist's extreme popularity.
Dated 2008
36" high x 52" wide
Select Group Exhibitions:
Venice Biennale in 1993 and 2003
Twentieth Century British Sculpture
Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1996
Extreme Abstraction, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 2005
Into Me / Out of Me, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2006
Re-Object, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, 2007
Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008
Select Artist's Exhibitions:
Internal Affairs, ICA, London, 1991
Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, 1997
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, 2004
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005
For the Love of God, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2008
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 2010/1
Select Artist's Galleries:
Other Criteria, London, England
White Cube, London, England
Gagosian, New York, NY
Select Artist's Permanent Collection:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, England
Hiscox Art Projects, London, England
Tate Modern, London, England
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA
July 7, 1965 · British
Ferrocene
Signed "Damien Hirst 2008" on back of canvas
Gloss on Canvas
" I believe painting and all art should be ultimately uplifting for the viewer. I love colour. I feel it inside of me. It gives me a buzz. I hate taste - it's acquired." Easily recognized as one of the most famous contemporary artists of all time, Damien Hirst was the most prominent member of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene during the 1990s. Probably most renowned for the incomparable fame and controversy they garnered because of the 1997 Sensation exhibit, the YBAs created a media frenzy with Hirst easily being their most controversial and celebrated artist.
Hirst burst into the art world scene in the early 1990s with his "spot" or "Pharmaceutical" paintings, of which Ferrocene is an outstanding example. The painting, consisting of a series of grids of identically sized painted dots, deliberately tests the boundaries between art, science, and pop culture. Hirst receives a tremendous amount of critical attention for his installation works that include taxidermic elements, but it is his spot paintings which are considered by critics to be the best of his oeuvre.
Among his most widely recognized works, the spot paintings date from 1986 to 2011. Heavily influenced by the artistic legacy of Marcel Duchamp, Hirst sees the real creative act as being in the conception, not the execution. As a result, much like an old school atelier, Hirst employs more than 100 people to meet the demands of his artistic output. In this work, any physical evidence of the human hand is removed and the work appears to be a mechanical construction.
In Ferrocene the grid-like structure creates the beginning of a system in which no two colors are the same. According to Hirst, the painting is about the urge or the need to be a painter above or beyond the object of painting. In many ways these works are more like sculptures than they are like paintings. This approach has an additional scientific component and is related to Hirst's 1992 installation Pharmacy. As with other paintings in the "Pharmaceutical" series Ferrocenegets its arbitrary tile from the Sigma-Aldrich catalog Biochemicals for Research and Diagnostic Reagents. Ferrocene is an agent that exhibits anti-cancer activity in pharmaceuticals.
Medicine and drugs are recurring themes in Hirst's work, recreated as a means of altering perception and providing a temporary cure. In both Pharmacy and "The Pharmaceutical Paintings" drugs are represented as an impermanent escape from sickness and pain. With these works, medicine like art is revealed as providing a belief system of values and guarantees that is both seductive and illusory. Influenced by both the imagination and pathos of Joseph Cornell and Francis Bacon, Hirst acknowledges that much of his work emphasizes the macabre. With the spot paintings, however, he insists that despite the conceptual meaning these "paintings end up looking happy."
Born in Bristol and raised in Leeds, Hirst's eccentricity became evident when he was a child. Throughout his artistic development, he was misunderstood and often rejected. He eventually went on to study art at the prestigious Goldsmiths College of the University of London, where he was refused admittance the first time he applied. While at Goldsmiths, Hirst organized many cutting edge student exhibitions. The most successful taking place in the former Peek Freans biscuit factory where the renowned contemporary collector Charles Saatchi walked in and purchased Hirst's first animal installation on sight. In 1991, Saatchi became a major patron of Hirst's work offering to fund whatever artworks Hirst wanted to make. Saatchi continued to fund Hirst throughout his career.
Ferrocene is an exceptionally important work that represents one of the major steps in Hirst's ascension to the commanding heights of the elite art world. The series of spot paintings, along with Hirst's other works, demand unbelievably high prices at auction, and Hirst is easily the most successful contemporary artist in England. His fame far exceeds his homeland, however, and Hirst receives critical acclaim on an international level. He received the Turner Prize in 1995 and in 2008 Hirst exhibited at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in conjunction with an exhibition of paintings from the museum's collection. The Museum's director issued the statement, "Of course we do the Old Masters but we are not a 'yesterday institution' and Damien Hirst shows this in a very strong way."
In September of 2008, a Sotheby's auction of Hirst's work raised $198 million dollars, ten times higher than any existing record for a single artist's sale at Sotheby's. Hirst is in high demand on the contemporary art market with both museums and private collectors competing for his works. Although Hirst produces serial copies of many of his works, they are still incredibly difficult to acquire because of the artist's extreme popularity.
Dated 2008
36" high x 52" wide
Select Group Exhibitions:
Venice Biennale in 1993 and 2003
Twentieth Century British Sculpture
Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1996
Extreme Abstraction, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 2005
Into Me / Out of Me, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2006
Re-Object, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, 2007
Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008
Select Artist's Exhibitions:
Internal Affairs, ICA, London, 1991
Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, 1997
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, 2004
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005
For the Love of God, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2008
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 2010/1
Select Artist's Galleries:
Other Criteria, London, England
White Cube, London, England
Gagosian, New York, NY
Select Artist's Permanent Collection:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, England
Hiscox Art Projects, London, England
Tate Modern, London, England
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA
