Past Exhibition

Damien Hirst: The Last Supper

This is a painting of a medication label with the word "Chicken" featured. The painting showcases a design reminiscent of a pharmaceutical label. It prominently displays the word "Chicken®" in black font. Below it, in black and red text, the painting states "Concentrated Oral Solution Morphine Sulphate" with a dosage of "20mg/ml" and volume "120ml". The design includes blocks of orange and blue lines at the top, and the artist's name "Damien Hirst" printed at the bottom. The painting conveys a clinical yet playful tone, reflecting Hirst's interest in medical themes.
Damien Hirst, Coriander Studio, Paragon Press, Chicken, 1999, color screenprint on Somerset wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Gift of The Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, DC), 2015.19.3221.7

Details

  • Dates

    -
  • Locations

    East Building, Concourse Elevator Lobby, CLA-98
This is a painting of a medication label with the word "Chicken" featured. The painting showcases a design reminiscent of a pharmaceutical label. It prominently displays the word "Chicken®" in black font. Below it, in black and red text, the painting states "Concentrated Oral Solution Morphine Sulphate" with a dosage of "20mg/ml" and volume "120ml". The design includes blocks of orange and blue lines at the top, and the artist's name "Damien Hirst" printed at the bottom. The painting conveys a clinical yet playful tone, reflecting Hirst's interest in medical themes.
Damien Hirst, Coriander Studio, Paragon Press, Chicken, 1999, color screenprint on Somerset wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Gift of The Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, DC), 2015.19.3221.7

Damien Hirst was among the most prominent of the Young British Artists—or YBAs, as they are known—who revitalized the British art scene in the 1990s. In The Last Supper, he wittily explores the role of faith, viewing it in relation to medicine and religion.

The 13 prints that make up the Last Supper series refer to the number gathered at the biblical Last Supper. Each print features a pharmaceutical label that has been altered. The names of medicines have been replaced with those of common British foods (“Ethambutol Hydrochloride” becomes “Steak and Kidney,” for example) and the names or logos of the manufacturers have been replaced by those of the artist—Hirst’s own brand, so to speak. Enlarged to a heroic scale, the prints pose the question of whether pharmaceuticals—a staple of many contemporary diets—may have become not only the salvation in which we put our faith, but our daily bread.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.