Damien Hirst: Forgiving and Forgetting
Front cover of book featuring a detail of Minnie (2020)
This book was published on the occasion of Damien Hirst: Forgiving and Forgetting, an exhibition at Gagosian, Rome, that subsequently traveled to Gagosian, 541 West 24th Street, New York. It featured works from Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, a project begun in 2017 that presents sculptural relics from a fictional shipwreck off the coast of East Africa. Contextualizing these sculptures with a story of seafaring exploits, marine excavation, and laborious research, Hirst aims to invoke feelings of wonder at their meticulous physical and conceptual fabrication. The show also included works from Hirst’s recent series Reverence Paintings, in which the artist layers dabs of color and flecks of gold leaf over monochrome canvases, giving them a shimmering, quasi-pointillist dynamism.
The publication includes color plates and details of the sixteen sculptures and fifteen paintings in the exhibition, along with installation photography of both presentations. It features “Joyous Hybridity: From Pagan to Christian to the Seabed,” an illustrated essay by Wendy Monkhouse that explores the works’ cultural and historical references. The book is available in two different covers; one illustrates Minnie (2020) and the other Samaritan (2020).
Publisher: Gagosian
Publication date: 2022
Contributor: Wendy Monkhouse
Designer: Jason Beard
Printer: Pureprint Group, Uckfield, England
Format: Hardcover
Dimensions: 9 5/8 × 13 1/2 inches (24.5 × 34.3 cm)
Pages: 160
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-951449-35-3
