Damien Hirst  (B.1965), Myth.

inscribed Damien Hirst, dated 2010, numbered 1/3, titled and stamped by the foundry PANGOLIN EDITIONS  painted bronze; 359 by 280 by 80.8cm.; 141 3/8 by 110 1/4 by 31 7/8 in. 
  
Conceived in 2010 and cast in an edition of 3 plus one artist's proof.

EXHIBITED: Monaco, Musée Océanographique, the catalogue Cornucopia. Damien Hirst, 1 April - 30 September 2010, pp.86-89, illustrated in the catalogue.

NOTE: The elegant counter-part to Legend, Myth embodies the fabled Unicorn, the shimmering white horse bearing a single twisted horn, a tusk that was considered an elixir of fertility and health and a symbol of universal power. The Unicorn is one of the most potent mythological symbols in western culture. The clerics and philosophers of the middle ages endowed it with a wealth of theological properties. The common lore of the period perpetuated an allegorical account of a unicorn being hunted until stilled by the presence of a virgin, who took the head of the beast upon her lap, where it slept. The wild beast had been tempered and tamed by the purity of the maiden. This story has inspired some of the most outstanding works of European art, including the majestic millefleur tapestry Maiden with Unicorn in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. The tale entered into the meta-history of the Virgin Mary, where the Unicorn became a symbol of Christ's Passion, an elegiac symbol of his divine suffering and absolute purity. Hirst has frequently taken on the challenge of religion in his work. Indeed Myth can be situated amongst the most visually arresting of the artist's sculptural oeuvre, including the similarly flayed Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain and Hymn in bronze, The Anatomy of an Angel in marble, and his iconic masterpiece preserved in formaldehyde, The Golden Calf.

Myth eloquently references the pseudo-sciences of the past, and our enduring fascination with the healing properties of religion and science, and for the role of Art in representing the acquisition of knowledge. One flank of the Unicorn  lays bare the internal structure of the myth and our folly in the pursuit of anatomising our belief. By revealing themortal flesh of the animal within, Hirst has cleverly inverted the purpose of such a study. The myth explored here is only deepened by the tantalising corporeality of this sculpture.

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2011. Photography by Barnaby Hindle.