Cephalothin
Cephalothin
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
£6,500-£10,000Value Indicator
$13,500-$21,000 Value Indicator
$12,000-$18,000 Value Indicator
¥60,000-¥100,000 Value Indicator
€7,500-€11,500 Value Indicator
$70,000-$100,000 Value Indicator
¥1,220,000-¥1,880,000 Value Indicator
$8,500-$13,500 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Etching
Edition size: 75
Year: 2007
Size: H 100cm x W 88cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2024 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| December 2017 | Christie's New York | United States | |||
| April 2015 | Phillips New York | United States | |||
| March 2015 | Bonhams Knightsbridge | United Kingdom | |||
| December 2013 | Ketterer Kunst Hamburg | Germany | |||
| May 2011 | Bonhams Knightsbridge | United Kingdom | |||
| June 2010 | Phillips New York | United States |
Meaning & Analysis
Cephalothin is an etching from 2007 by Damien Hirst. The print shows numerous spots in bright colours, arranged methodically into a perfect circle and set against a white backdrop. Hirst’s Spots paintings, which this series of prints are based on, are amongst the artist’s most widely recognised works of his career.
The methodical arrangement of spots into a tightly knit mesh, creates a composition that is bright and buzzing. The colour and arrangement appear to be seemingly random and with infinite possibilities in their display. What is notably different about this arrangement is the way in which the spots are composed in a circle, as opposed to a grid. This is indicative of the way in which Hirst explores this theme to its absolute limits, with a plethora of compositional possibilities.
Fascinated by intuitive colour choice from his days at Goldsmiths, Hirst claims that the spot paintings have removed any problems he previously had with colour, allowing him to present a perfect arrangement of colour that is never repeated. Indeed, the Spots paintings represent abstraction reduced to its most basic mechanisms: colour, form and composition. This exploration of abstraction is distinctly Hirstian.
Damien Hirst, born in Bristol in 1965, is often hailed the enfant terrible of the contemporary art world. His provocative works challenge conventions and his conceptual brilliance spans installations, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring themes of mortality and the human experience. As a leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement in the late '80s, Hirst's work has dominated the British art scene for decades and has become renowned for being laced with controversy, thus shaping the dialogue of modern art.
