Hirst pickled animal sculptures dated in 90s ‘were made in 2017’
DAMIEN HIRST has become embroiled in a fakery row after it was claimed his preserved animal artworks were created decades after their labels suggested.
Three artworks featuring animals preserved in formaldehyde were said to have been made in the 1990s, but an investigation found they were created by Hirst’s team in 2017.
The artist’s representatives explained that the dates attached to the artworks, usually taken as the date of their completion, were in fact when Hirst had his first “conception” of the idea.
The trio of pieces are a preserved Dove (1999), with wings outstretched; Cain and Abel (1994), a pair of preserved calves; and a preserved shark, dissected into three pieces, titled Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded (1993-1999).
They were displayed in 2018 in what was billed as a retrospective of Hirst’s 1990s work but they were only a year old at the time, according to a Guardian investigation.
In a statement, Hirst’s company Science said: “Formaldehyde works are conceptual artworks and the date Damien Hirst assigns to them is the date of the conception of the work.
“He has been clear over the years when asked what is important in conceptual art; it is not the physical making of the object or the renewal of its parts, but rather the intention and the idea behind the artwork.”
The artworks in question were displayed at the Gagosian Gallery in Hong Kong in the 2018 show Visual Candy and Natural History, which was billed as showing off “a selection of paintings and sculptures by Damien Hirst from the early to mid-1990s”. In subsequent shows, Myth Explored and Cain and Abel have been billed as being 1990s creations, while Dove was sold off.
Sources have told The Guardian that the works, understood to have been produced at Hirst’s workshop near Stroud, in Gloucestershire, were made to look older than they were.
His lawyers have rejected this, saying that some works have in the past “been made to look older or distressed” but this was part of the “artistic process”.
Hirst’s representatives have been contacted for comment.