Email this lot to a friend

« Email Address (separate multiple emails with a comma)

hide

Lot 15

translate

email

save

DAMIEN HIRST, Wretched War, 2004

Sign In to see what this sold for

Wretched War, 2004. Bronze. 158 × 70 × 86 cm (62 1/4 × 27 1/2 × 33 7/8 in). Signed ‘Damien Hirst’ and numbered of 10 on the reverse of the base; further titled ‘Wretched War’ on the front of the base. This work is from an edition of 10.
♠Ω

PROVENANCE White Cube, London
“I can’t understand why some people believe completely in medicine but not in art, without questioning either.” (Damien Hirst, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always forever, now, London, 2005, p. 24) Damien Hirst is an artist renowned for his capacity to shock. Through recurrent themes of science, mortality, religion and beauty, Hirst has created a signature style that destabilises the comfort we seek in art, making us re-evaluate not only art’s role in our lives, but our entire outlook on life itself. The original male counterpart to Wretched War, Hymn, created in 1999–2000, featured a 20-foot anatomical model in painted bronze. Towering over us, akin to a bewildering religious monument, the sculpture raised powerful questions on our reliance on both science and religion – opposing outlooks that both offer reassurance to the faithful. As Western secular society turns more and more to a reliance on science in lieu of our past faith in religion, Hirst questions our innate dependency on external solace and meaning. Through the independent medium of art, such questions gain a powerful dimension, as sentiment collides with reason and our biases are exposed. A later development in the anatomical series, Wretched War again appropriates the anatomical model now in unpainted bronze, onto its equivalent: a pregnant, decapitated female. The ‘her’ to the artist’s Hymn, Wretched War mimics the ballet pose of Degas’ Little Dancer, alluding to a teenage pregnancy. The sacred image of mother and child appears like a victim of battle, the body scarred and flayed. Yet the striding pose appears strong and solid, the echoes of Degas overlaying an elegance and beauty which triumph frailty and decay. Wretched War reminds us that science alone cannot convey the overwhelming emotion and beauty of the human body, in all its wretched glory.

Click on thumbnails to see larger images:

View Phillips de Pury & Company next auction.

Similar lots up for auction