Elaidoyl Chloride

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)

Elaidoyl Chloride

signed 'Damien Hirst' (lower right)

woodcut in colors on 410 gsm Somerset white textured paper

sheet: 12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)

framed: 15 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches (38.7 x 38.7 cm)

Executed in 2011. This work is number 33 from an edition of 55 plus 15 artist’s proofs.

Published by Paragon Press, London.

PROVENANCE:

Acquired directly from the publisher by the present owner

NOTES:

Born in Bristol in 1965, Damien Hirst is one of the most influential and controversial British artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He first rose to prominence in the late 1980s as a leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBAs), a group known for their provocative and concept-driven work. Hirst quickly became known for pushing boundaries in art, particularly his use of unusual materials like whole animals preserved in formaldehyde, pharmaceuticals, and surgical instruments. His fascination with death, desire, science, and belief systems has made him both a cultural lightning rod and a defining figure of contemporary art. 

Hirst’s Elaidoyl Chloride exemplifies the artist’s enduring fascination with the intersection of science and aesthetics. This work translates Hirst’s universally known Spot Paintings series into a print with four distinct and perfect circles in yellow, orange, red, and purple. The works title, referencing an organic compound that can be used as a building block for synthesizing other organic compounds such as pharmaceuticals, situates the work within Hirst’s conceptual framework that often explores life, death and the codes of existence.