Lizard Man
2012
Bronze
Overall dimensions: 86 × 62.4 × 47 cm (33 7/8 × 24 9/16 × 18 1/2 in.)
As its title suggests, Lizard Man depicts the head of an anthropomorphic reptile: a monstrous gaping mouth, scaly skin, gills as cheeks and a very flat nose have been added to the shape of a human head. Dotted with what look like small crustaceans, the bronze sculpture seems to have suffered from being underwater a long time before it was fished out.
The animal theme is much more common than that of the animal-man in Damien Hirst's oeuvre. This piece is in the spirit of an ancient work based on mythology that would have sunk to the bottom of the sea after the wreck of a freed slave’s ship from Antioch.
Hirst's Lizard Man was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection at the 2017 exhibition "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" at the Punta della Dogana.
The animal theme is much more common than that of the animal-man in Damien Hirst's oeuvre. This piece is in the spirit of an ancient work based on mythology that would have sunk to the bottom of the sea after the wreck of a freed slave’s ship from Antioch.
Hirst's Lizard Man was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection at the 2017 exhibition "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" at the Punta della Dogana.
Exhibitions
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, Adagp, Paris.
Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
Exhibition view, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, April 9 – December 3, 2017.
