End of an Era

We felt it was important to feature the latest work of contemporary artist, Damien Hirst, whom you most likely are familiar with. Damien Hirst is perhaps best known for his glass tank installments where he preserved dead animals in formaldehyde. He is famous for his exhibition in '92 featuring a piece entitled, Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. The concept behind this piece was to address life and death, and the inevitable mortality of all living things. His work is often direct, provocative, and his sense of irony and wit is intriguing. Most recently, his exhibition entitled, "End of an Era" is hosted by the Gagosian Gallery in New York. The show opened last Saturday (attended by various celebrity guests, namely, Mick Jagger, Bono, James Franco, Takashi Murakami, and Terry Richardson) and will be on display until Mar 6. "The exhibition takes its title from the central sculpture in the exhibition, a severed bull's head with golden horns and crowned with a solid gold disc. Suspended in formaldehyde and encased in a golden vitrine, this totemic sculpture acts as a powerful coda to The Golden Calf (2008). End of an Era proffers a sacrificial head, here dismembered from the majestic body of the earlier sculpture. While The Golden Calf symbolized the worshipping of a false idol, with End of an Era (2009) Hirst demystifies the biblical tale and, by extension, debunks his own myth-making. " - Gagosian press release The exhibition features the latest offerings of Damien Hirst, and marks his departure from a series of notable artwork produced over the past two decades. End of an Era, however, has not been well received. After reading several reviews and critiques, people have argued that his conceptual subject matter about life and death was much more interesting, and that this exhibition is simply a display of his wealth and success. End of an Era "plays out his opulent critique of materialism." His thoughts behind the exhibition was to incorporate money as an element in the composition. He believes in the importance of art addressing the complications and issues of money in our lives. Despite Hirst 's involvement in charitable work, is it really appropriate to feature sculptures and photorealist paintings that fetishize wealth considering the current situation in Haiti? This has been the topic up for discussion among several critics. What are your thoughts?

Photo Credits: Cyana Trendland

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