A diamond-encrusted human skull, a taxidermy shark preserved in formaldehyde and shelves of replica pharmaceutical pills – it can only be the original bad boy of the YBA's (Young British Artists), Damien Hirst.
The Tate Modern presents a blockbuster exhibition of over 70 paintings, sculptures and installations of the artist's seminal and often controversial works. Iconic sculptures on show include his debatable formaldehyde beasts, including a bisected cow and calf in Mother and Child Divided and real flies dancing around a dead cow's head encased in glass vitrine in A Thousand Years.
A real highlight is In and Out of Love, a room full of beautiful live butterflies burst from pupae and adhered to blank canvases. Hirst’s Pharmacy installation (1992) has been recreated with shelves of medical packaging, pills and surgical implements.
The walls are dominated by the distinctive and ultra-precise Spot Paintings, the psychedelic Spin series and numerous meditations on the butterfly. For the Love of God, a £50 million diamond-encrusted skull and an icon of contemporary art, is showcased as a free display in the Tate's Turbine Hall.
The exhibition can be visited until 9 September.
Photographs courtesy Damien Hirst.
Tate Britain
Bankside
SE1 9TG London
UK
