Damien Hirst: End of an Era

Idolatry, illusion, glitz and greed in Damien Hirsts seminal sculpture and painting cycles In 2010, Gagosian Gallery staged a seminal exhibition of Damien Hirsts (born 1965) paintings and sculptures. Titled End of an Era, it addressed concepts of illusion and reality, myth and idolatry, and took its name from the central sculpture in the exhibition: a severed bulls head in a gold vitrine. The work served as a sequel to Hirsts 2008 sculpture The Golden Calf, a formaldehyde-preserved bull. Alongside this sculpture, the exhibition showed Hirsts Diamond Fact Paintings for the first timea series of photorealist depictions of the worlds most illustrious jewelsas well as two Diamond Cabinets. This catalog collects these pieces and includes a catalogue raisonn of each series (Gold Tanks, Diamond Cabinets and Diamond Fact Paintings). The publication also features a conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hirst.