Silver Still-life Sculptures

Damien Hirst (b.1965) Abacus - The Dream is Dead 2007 silver 14.5 x 14 x 21 cm incised, titled and numbered ‘Abacus Damien Hirst The Dream is dead 2/12’ (on the verso) edition 2/12 Price: $85,000 USD Provenance: White Cube, London Private collection, New York Sale: Christie’s London, 29 June 2011, lot 114 Private collection, London (acquired at the above sale) Notes: ‘I remember I was thinking that there were four important things in life: religion, love, art and science. At their best, they’re all just tools to help you find a path through the darkness. None of them really work that well, but they help. Of them all, science seems to be the one right now. Like religion, it provides the glimmer of hope that maybe it will be all right in the end.’ (D. Hirst, quoted in conversation with S. O’Hagan in New Religion Damien Hirst, exh. cat., British Council, London, 2006, p. 5) Born in 1965 in Bristol, Hirst grew up in Leeds and subsequently went to Goldsmith's College in London. Between 1988 and 1990 he curated a series of exhibitions of work by his contemporaries including the highly acclaimed group shows Freeze, Modern Medicine and Gambler. In his own work Hirst has continually challenged the boundaries between art, science, the media and popular culture. A 12-foot tiger shark, a cow and her calf sawn in two, pharmaceutical bottles...