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Damien Hirst

End of an Era

January 30–March 6, 2010
980 Madison Avenue, New York

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

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Installation video

Works Exhibited

Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009 Bull’s head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass, and formaldehyde solution, with Carrara marble plinth, 84 × 67 ⅜ × 38 ¼ inches (213.4 × 171 × 97.2 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009

Bull’s head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass, and formaldehyde solution, with Carrara marble plinth, 84 × 67 ⅜ × 38 ¼ inches (213.4 × 171 × 97.2 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009 Bull's head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass, and formaldehyde solution, with Carrara marble plinth, 84 × 67 ⅜ × 38 ¼ inches (213.4 × 171 × 97.2 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, End of an Era, 2009

Bull's head, gold, gold-plated steel, glass, and formaldehyde solution, with Carrara marble plinth, 84 × 67 ⅜ × 38 ¼ inches (213.4 × 171 × 97.2 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008 Gold-plated steel, glass, and cubic zirconia, in 2 parts, each: 72 ⅛ × 108 ⅜ × 4 inches (183.3 × 275.3 × 10.2 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008

Gold-plated steel, glass, and cubic zirconia, in 2 parts, each: 72 ⅛ × 108 ⅜ × 4 inches (183.3 × 275.3 × 10.2 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008 (detail) Gold-plated steel, glass, and cubic zirconia, in 2 parts, each: 72 ⅛ × 108 ⅜ × 4 inches (183.3 × 275.3 × 10.2 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008 (detail)

Gold-plated steel, glass, and cubic zirconia, in 2 parts, each: 72 ⅛ × 108 ⅜ × 4 inches (183.3 × 275.3 × 10.2 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Hancock (Red), 2006 Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Hancock (Red), 2006

Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Agra, 2006 Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Agra, 2006

Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Polar Star, 2006 Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, Polar Star, 2006

Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, De Beers, 2007 Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, De Beers, 2007

Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Golden Jubilee (Green), 2008 Oil on canvas, 36 × 48 inches (91.4 × 121.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

Damien Hirst, The Golden Jubilee (Green), 2008

Oil on canvas, 36 × 48 inches (91.4 × 121.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2010

About

Gordon Burn: If you got to make a fool of somebody, who would it be?
Damien Hirst: God.

Gagosian is pleased to present End of an Era, an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Damien Hirst.

The exhibition takes its title from the central sculpture in the exhibition, a severed bull’s head with golden horns and crowned with a solid gold disc. Suspended in formaldehyde and encased in a golden vitrine, this totemic sculpture acts as a powerful coda to The Golden Calf (2008). End of an Era proffers a sacrificial head, here dismembered from the majestic body of the earlier sculpture. While The Golden Calf symbolized the worshipping of a false idol, with End of an Era (2009) Hirst demystifies the biblical tale and, by extension, debunks his own mythmaking.

Also included in the exhibition is Judgement Day (2009), a thirty-foot-long gold cabinet filled with close to thirty thousand manufactured diamonds. A series of photorealist paintings of famous diamonds including The Golden Jubilee (2008), The Agra (2006), and The Premiere Rose (2006) are shown together here for the first time.

Having recently announced the end of the various series for which he has become known over the last twenty years, including the spot, spin, and butterfly paintings, Hirst also makes reference with the exhibition’s title to the sea change in his own work.