Hirst formaldehyde works dated to 1990s were made in 2017
The Guardian|March 20, 2024
Three Damien Hirst sculptures that were made by preserving animals in formaldehyde were dated by his company to the 1990s even though they were made in 2017, an investigation by the Guardian has found.
Maeve McClenaghan
Hirst formaldehyde works dated to 1990s were made in 2017

The trio of works, made by preserving a dove, a shark and two calves, have in recent years been exhibited in galleries in Hong Kong, New York, Munich, London and Oxford as examples of works from the 1990s, his Turner prize-winning period.

However, all three were made by Hirst's employees at a workshop in Dudbridge, Gloucestershire in 2017. The works first appeared at an exhibition in the Gagosian art gallery in Hong Kong that same year. The show, Visual Candy and Natural History, was billed as an exhibition of the artist's works "from the early to mid-1990s".

Among the artworks on show were three sculptures of animals preserved in formaldehyde that had never been seen in public before. They included Cain and Abel, 1994, which consisted of twin calves that appeared side-byside in white boxes, and Dove, 1999, featuring a bird, wings outstretched as if in flight, set in a single liquidfilled acrylic box.

Hirst gave the third piece, a shark dissected into three pieces, the title Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded, 1993-1999. The same sculpture is on show at the Munich Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art.

The Guardian could find no mention of the works having existed, in any form, before 2017. Sources familiar with all three works said that, contrary to the impression given by the dates in their titles, the sculptures were less than a year old when they first appeared in Hong Kong. Dove, 1999 is understood to have been sold at or after the Hong Kong exhibition.

The calves and dissected shark, however, have appeared in several public galleries and museums across the US and Europe, between 2018 and 2024.

At every exhibition they were displayed beside 1990s dates.

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