Menu

Damien Hirst

Forgiving and Forgetting

July 6–October 23, 2021
Rome

Installation view with Damien Hirst, Hylonome (2011) Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view with Damien Hirst, Hylonome (2011)

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto

Works Exhibited

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2016 Pink marble, 47 ¼ × 23 ⅝ × 17 ¾ inches (120 × 60 × 45 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2016

Pink marble, 47 ¼ × 23 ⅝ × 17 ¾ inches (120 × 60 × 45 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2016 (detail) Pink marble, 47 ¼ × 23 ⅝ × 17 ¾ inches (120 × 60 × 45 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2016 (detail)

Pink marble, 47 ¼ × 23 ⅝ × 17 ¾ inches (120 × 60 × 45 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Mickey, 2017 Carrara marble, 37 ⅝ × 23 ⅛ × 21 ⅞ inches (95.5 × 58.8 × 55.4 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Mickey, 2017

Carrara marble, 37 ⅝ × 23 ⅛ × 21 ⅞ inches (95.5 × 58.8 × 55.4 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Minnie, 2020 Pink marble, 39 ⅝ × 22 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ inches (100.5 × 58 × 58 mm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Minnie, 2020

Pink marble, 39 ⅝ × 22 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ inches (100.5 × 58 × 58 mm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2017 Carrara marble, 49 ½ × 19 ¾ × 24 ⅝ inches (125.7 × 50 × 62.5 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio GhilardiPrudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Goofy, 2017

Carrara marble, 49 ½ × 19 ¾ × 24 ⅝ inches (125.7 × 50 × 62.5 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio GhilardiPrudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Five Friends, 2018 Carrara marble, in 5 parts, Mickey: 30 ⅝ × 17 ½ × 17 ¼ inches (77.8 × 44.3 × 43.9 cm), Minnie: 31 ½ × 16 ⅝ × 17 ¼ inches (79.8 × 42.1 × 43.8 cm), Donald: 29 ¾ × 20 ⅜ × 17 ¾ inches (75.6 × 51.8 × 45.1 cm), Pluto: 30 ½ × 21 ½ × 23 inches (77.4 × 54.5 × 58.2 cm), Goofy: 49 ⅜ × 16 ¼ × 24 ½ inches (125.2 × 41.1 × 62.1 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Five Friends, 2018

Carrara marble, in 5 parts, Mickey: 30 ⅝ × 17 ½ × 17 ¼ inches (77.8 × 44.3 × 43.9 cm), Minnie: 31 ½ × 16 ⅝ × 17 ¼ inches (79.8 × 42.1 × 43.8 cm), Donald: 29 ¾ × 20 ⅜ × 17 ¾ inches (75.6 × 51.8 × 45.1 cm), Pluto: 30 ½ × 21 ½ × 23 inches (77.4 × 54.5 × 58.2 cm), Goofy: 49 ⅜ × 16 ¼ × 24 ½ inches (125.2 × 41.1 × 62.1 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Lucio Ghilardi/Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Hylonome, 2011 Carrara marble, 121 × 61 × 101 ⅝ inches (307.2 × 155 × 258 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Hylonome, 2011

Carrara marble, 121 × 61 × 101 ⅝ inches (307.2 × 155 × 258 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Hylonome, 2011 Carrara marble, 121 × 61 × 101 ⅝ inches (307.2 × 155 × 258 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Hylonome, 2011

Carrara marble, 121 × 61 × 101 ⅝ inches (307.2 × 155 × 258 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Tadukheba, 2011 Carrara marble and sapphire, 18 ⅛ × 10 ¼ × 11 ⅞ inches (46 × 26 × 30 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Tadukheba, 2011

Carrara marble and sapphire, 18 ⅛ × 10 ¼ × 11 ⅞ inches (46 × 26 × 30 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Tadukheba, 2011 Carrara marble and sapphire, 18 ⅛ × 10 ¼ × 11 ⅞ inches (46 × 26 × 30 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Tadukheba, 2011

Carrara marble and sapphire, 18 ⅛ × 10 ¼ × 11 ⅞ inches (46 × 26 × 30 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Unknown Pharaoh, 2015 Carrara marble, 29 ⅞ × 20 ½ × 11 ⅝ inches (75.9 × 52 × 29.5 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Unknown Pharaoh, 2015

Carrara marble, 29 ⅞ × 20 ½ × 11 ⅝ inches (75.9 × 52 × 29.5 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Heaven, 2020 Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Heaven, 2020

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Heaven, 2020 (detail) Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Heaven, 2020 (detail)

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Holy, 2020 Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Holy, 2020

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Gnostic, 2020 Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 72 × 48 inches (182.9 × 121.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Gnostic, 2020

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 72 × 48 inches (182.9 × 121.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Gnostic, 2020 (detail) Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 72 × 48 inches (182.9 × 121.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

Damien Hirst, Gnostic, 2020 (detail)

Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 72 × 48 inches (182.9 × 121.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates

About

It’s all about what you want to believe.
—Damien Hirst

Gagosian is pleased to present Forgiving and Forgetting, an exhibition of sculptures and new paintings by Damien Hirst. The presentation coincides with Archaeology Now, on view from June 8 to November 7, 2021, which intersperses more than eighty paintings and sculptures by Hirst among the historical collections of the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

Forgiving and Forgetting includes works from Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, a project that presented sculptural relics from a fictional shipwreck off the coast of East Africa, playing fast and loose with linear time, cultural origin, and perceptions of relative status and value. Foregrounding these sculptures against an intricately woven tale of seafaring exploits, marine excavation, and laborious research, Hirst aimed to invoke feelings of wonder at their meticulous physical and conceptual fabrication.

The series debuted in 2017 with a suite of Treasures—ranging from pastiches of ancient and classical busts, masks, and statues to representations of iconic Disney cartoon characters—rendered in an extraordinary array of materials, many encrusted with colorful blooms of skillfully painted barnacles, as if salvaged from the ocean floor. Forgiving and Forgetting marks an ambitious phase in Hirst’s body of work; these sculptures are carved out of pink Portuguese marble and white Carrara marble, immortalizing each figure in one of the most storied materials in Western art history.

Read more

Tutto dipende da ciò in cui vuoi credere.
—Damien Hirst

In occasione della importante mostra Archeology Now ospitata dalla Galleria Borghese dall’8 giugno, Gagosian è lieta di presentare Forgiving and Forgetting, una mostra di sculture e nuovi dipinti di Damien Hirst.

L’allestimento include opere dell’epico progetto Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, in cui Hirst esponeva reperti scultorei recuperati da un naufragio immaginario al largo della costa dell’Africa orientale, confondendo sequenze cronologiche, origini culturali e percezioni di status e valore. Con queste opere presentate attraverso un intricato racconto di imprese marinaresche, scavi subacquei e laboriose ricerche, Hirst riusciva ad evocare una sensazione di strepitosa meraviglia di fronte alla loro minuziosa accuratezza materiale e concettuale.

La serie ha esordito nel 2017 con un gruppo di Treasures che includeva, tra gli altri, parodie di busti antichi e classici, maschere e statue degli iconici personaggi dei cartoni animati Disney, resi in una straordinaria varietà di materiali e spesso incrostati di colorate fioriture di corallo abilmente dipinte, come se recuperati dal fondo dell’oceano. La mostra corrente, Forgiving and Forgetting, segna un ulteriore ambizioso progresso nel lavoro di Hirst in cui le figure, immortalate in marmo rosa del Portogallo e bianco di Carrara, prendono vita in uno dei materiali più leggendari della storia dell’arte occidentale.

Ogni soggetto scultoreo, scolpito nel suo marmo monocromo, assume la stessa solennità: la gestualità giocosa di Minni carica di coralli riecheggia in un’altra parte della galleria nella mano tesa della centauressa Hylonome, il cui genere statuario evoca sia il Barocco che la maestosa simmetria della scultura neoclassica francese. Suggerendo contaminazioni inaspettate tra antico e moderno, i Treasures di marmo di Hirst esemplificano il concetto di mitologia centrale in ogni tipo di cultura, sia aulica che popolare.

In questa occasione Hirst presenta inoltre i suoi ultimi dipinti, della serie Reverence Paintings. Volendo inizialmente reinterpretare in bianco assoluto i suoi vivaci dipinti della serie Cherry Blossoms, l’artista ha deciso di disporre sulle tele, altrimenti monocromatiche, dinamiche macchie di colore e tocchi di foglia d’oro, dando loro una nuova brillante e intensa vitalità.

Ricoperti di punti colorati dal denso impasto che conferiscono ad ogni composizione sia campo prospettico che sfocamento visivo, i Reverence Paintings rivelano l’intensa relazione di Hirst con il colore, espandendo gli impulsi espressionistici e puntinisti che hanno ispirato i suoi lavori più recenti.

News

Still from “Damien Hirst: Hylonome”

Video

Damien Hirst
Hylonome

In this time-lapse video, Damien Hirst’s Hylonome (2011) is installed at Gagosian, Rome, for the exhibition Forgiving and Forgetting, on view from July 6 through October 23, 2021. Rendered in Carrara marble, the female centaur, whose statuesque form conjures both Baroque corporeality and the stately symmetry of French Neoclassical sculpture, sparks an unexpected interplay between ancient and modern. The work is from the artist’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, a project that presented sculptural relics from a fictional shipwreck off the coast of East Africa, playing fast and loose with linear time, cultural origin, and perceptions of relative status and value.

Still from “Damien Hirst: Hylonome”