From the Cradle to the Grave: Selected Drawings

Following Damien Hirst's Biennale Grand Prize, which he was awarded in 2001 for The Last Supper prints, Ljubljana International Biennale of Graphic Arts invited the artist to produce an entirely new show for their 25th Biennale in 2003. In response, Hirst exhibited his first ever exhibition of drawings which, spanning his career, consisted of approximately 100 pieces. Many were sourced from private and public collections and displayed the studious, preliminary and imaginative workings of the artist. A number of drawings dated form his early teenagehood, others were lent by close friends, who had been given personal drawings by the artist. Included in the exhibition were a number of preparatory sketches for later and larger works including paintings and sculptures. This publication reproduces over 300 drawings and is a fascinating and diverse insight into the artist's working mind and methods, it manages to convey his humour and integrity in the making process. In the words of Hugh Allan, "these drawings should be seen as the spirits or shadows of more robust 'living' things … Urgent to render and explanation, Hirst has the energy of a dying man desperate to tell us a truth; as the title of the show suggests, cradle and grave bracket what lies between."