Name: Steak & Kidney
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst’s Steak & Kidney (signed) is estimated to be worth between £1,900 and £2,850. This screenprint, created in 1999, has shown consistent value growth since its first sale in July 2004. This work has an auction history of 11 total sales, with an average annual growth rate of 3%. The hammer price over the past five years has ranged from £1,300 in November 2024 to £5,953 in June 2022. The current owner of this artwork can expect an average annual return of 1%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 150.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

November 2024

Artcurial

France

September 2023

Phillips London

United Kingdom

September 2022

Sotheby's Paris

France

June 2022

Phillips London

United Kingdom

September 2020

Sotheby's Online

United Kingdom

May 2020

Forum Auctions London

United Kingdom

November 2019

Christie's London

United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

Steak & Kidney was created in 1999 by Young British Artist, Damien Hirst, as part of The Last Supper. Published in an edition of 150, this is one of thirteen screen prints within the series which acts as commentary on the glamorisation of pharmaceuticals. Using a simple, limited pallete of four colours, Steak & Kidney is imitative of medicinal packaging.

The words ‘Steak & Kidney’ replace the medicine name, and in place of the manufacturer's logo Hirst creates another using his own name ‘Damien’. Some pharmaceutical descriptions and measurements remain: the words ‘Ethambutol Hydrochloride Tablets 400mg’ sit awkwardly between the artwork title and the word PIE.

In this series Hirst takes everyday, cafeteria foods and holds them up to Christian faith and the perceived glamour of pharmaceuticals. He shows us how these medicines have become commonplace, their packaging familiar and the contents trusted. For Hirst our relationship with medicine is a belief system, very much like art or religion.

Pharmaceutical imagery, glamour and idolisation can be found early in the artist’s career in his Medicine Cabinet series. Empty medicine packaging is displayed in cabinets under titles including ‘Holidays’, ‘New York’ and ‘God’. Later, he uses similar cabinets to display brightly coloured pills and cubic zirconia.

Hirst’s ongoing questioning of human faith can be found again and again throughout his work. Signed and unnumbered (as is true of all prints in the series) this print can be considered an important piece within the artist’s catalogue raisonné.