The Dead (Imperial purple, oriental gold)
The Dead (Imperial purple, oriental gold)
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
£4,250-£6,500Value Indicator
$9,000-$13,500 Value Indicator
$8,000-$12,000 Value Indicator
¥40,000-¥60,000 Value Indicator
€4,900-€7,500 Value Indicator
$45,000-$70,000 Value Indicator
¥840,000-¥1,290,000 Value Indicator
$6,000-$9,000 Value Indicator
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41 x 30cm, Edition of 15, Foil Block
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
The Dead (imperial purple, oriental gold) is a signed foil block print in colours on Arches paper produced by renowned contemporary artist, Damien Hirst. Hirst depicts a floating skull in this print, which he renders in a deep and bold imperial purple. The artist adds splashes of oriental gold which immediately draws the viewer’s attention towards the skull, which dominates the centre of the composition.
The print, produced in 2009, is one of thirty-one prints that compose The Dead series. In this series, Hirst repeatedly uses the image of a skull, an icon for death, however, transforms the image in each print through the use of bold and vibrant colours. The bright and lively colours clash with the theme of death that runs throughout the series, making the series stand out from Hirst’s others in which skulls are depicted in black and white, such as Memento (2008).
Death is a theme that Hirst frequently explores in his artworks. He first developed his interest in exploring what death meant when he was a teenager living in Leeds. When he was sixteen, Hirst would visit the anatomy department of Leeds Medical School and produce life drawings of what he saw there.
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.
