Damien Hirst — The Last Supper For Sale

Damien Hirst The Last Supper Prints For Sale

Definitive Works Exploring Pharmaceuticals, Mortality, and Consumer Culture

Guy Hepner, New York, presents The Last Supper (1999), one of Damien Hirst's most intellectually rigorous print series and a foundational work within the artist's broader pharmaceutical iconography. As a leading authority in Hirst's secondary market ---

Market Context and Artist Authority

Damien Hirst remains the defining figure of the Young British Artists movement and among the most consequential artists of the contemporary era. His market-making "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" single-artist auction at Sotheby's in September 2008 achieved a staggering $198 million total, executed at the precise moment of global financial crisis—a testament to collector confidence in Hirst's enduring significance.

The Last Supper series, with its fusion of accessible pricing and conceptual depth, represents a compelling entry point for collectors seeking museum-quality engagement with Hirst's pharmaceutical investigations at scale-appropriate valuations. The series has demonstrated sustained institutional interest and collector demand, with authenticated works commanding consistent attention at major auction houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams.

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Series Context and Conceptual Framework

The Last Supper series comprises thirteen large-scale screen prints, each appropriating the clinical visual language of pharmaceutical packaging while substituting prescription drug names with common British comfort foods. This linguistic displacement—replacing medications with nourishment—generates profound meditation on Western society's complex relationship with healing, consumption, and mortality.

Created in 1999, the series emerged during a pivotal period in Hirst's practice, following his iconic medicine cabinet sculptures and spot paintings but preceding the more elaborate pharmaceutical installations of the 2000s. The title's biblical reference introduces additional layers of meaning: the communal meal as sacred ritual, food as spiritual sustenance, and the implicit suggestion that modern pharmaceuticals have assumed quasi-religious significance in contemporary life.

Hirst's appropriation of pharmaceutical aesthetics carries deliberate provocation. The clinical typography, standardized layouts, and institutional color palettes borrowed from actual drug packaging create immediate recognition while subverting expectations. When viewers encounter "Dumpling" or "Corned Beef" rendered with the visual authority of prescription medication, the familiar becomes strange, and fundamental questions emerge regarding society's faith in chemical intervention versus natural remedy.

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Technical Specifications and Edition Details

Each work in The Last Supper series was executed as a screen print in 1999, demonstrating Hirst's commitment to precision reproduction and his understanding of print media's capacity for conceptual rigor. The screen print medium—with its associations to commercial printing, pharmaceutical packaging, and Pop Art precedent—reinforces the series' engagement with mass production and consumer culture.

The technical execution reflects Hirst's exacting standards. Color registration, typographic clarity, and material quality meet the institutional standards expected of works entering major collections. All works are authenticated through Science Ltd, the artist's studio and authentication body established specifically to maintain scholarly documentation of Hirst's extensive output. White Cube provides primary market representation, while secondary market transactions through established dealers like Guy Hepner ensure provenance continuity and professional handling.

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Notable Works from the Series

Dumpling (from The Last Supper) (1999) This screen print exemplifies the series' conceptual methodology, transforming humble comfort food into pharmaceutical product with clinical precision.

Corned Beef (from The Last Supper) (1999) Among the most visually arresting works in the series, presenting traditional British provisions through medical packaging conventions.

Beans and Chips (from The Last Supper) (1999) A particularly resonant pairing that evokes working-class British cuisine while maintaining the sterile presentation of prescription medication.

Mushroom, from The Last Supper (1999) This work introduces subtle complexity through the mushroom's dual associations with nourishment and toxicity—an apt metaphor for pharmaceutical intervention.

Sausages, from The Last Supper (1999) Demonstrates the series' capacity for dry humor while maintaining serious conceptual inquiry.

Omelette (from The Last Supper) (1999) Meatballs (from The Last Supper) (1999) Sandwich (from The Last Supper) (1999) Each contributes to the series' comprehensive examination of sustenance, medication, and cultural consumption patterns.

Hirst's Practice in Context

Damien Hirst emerged as a defining figure of the Young British Artists movement in the late 1980s, building a body of work across painting, sculpture, and printmaking united by a sustained conceptual interest in mortality, science, medicine, and belief systems. His prints and editions extend the visual language developed across his sculptural and painted work — repetition, colour systems, and the tension between clinical precision and organic subject matter — into widely accessible reproducible form.

Hirst's work is held in the permanent collections of major museums worldwide, and his 2008 "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" single-artist auction at Sotheby's, which bypassed the traditional gallery system entirely, remains one of the most widely discussed events in the recent history of the contemporary art market.