Reclining Woman
2012
Pink marble
Overall dimensions: 144.2 × 333.6 × 116.8 cm (56 3/4 × 131 5/16 × 46 in.)
This sculpture of a nude woman lying on a couch is highly detailed: a graceful bust, generously-curved chest and supple belly with a defined navel. The Greco-Roman tradition abounds with stories of men falling madly in love with truer-than-life sculptures on the borderline between art, life, mimesis and simulacrum.
Like Pygmalion, who, tired of the real women he met, carved in ivory the body of one who came alive at his touch, Damien Hirst made a pink marble sculpture that vividly expresses the relationship between art, imitation and reality. The coral recalls the practice of reproducing natural rock formations, such as in the ancient city of Rhodes, which was full of artificial grottoes.
Hirst's Reclining Woman was exhibited for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2017 "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" show at the Palazzo Grassi.
Like Pygmalion, who, tired of the real women he met, carved in ivory the body of one who came alive at his touch, Damien Hirst made a pink marble sculpture that vividly expresses the relationship between art, imitation and reality. The coral recalls the practice of reproducing natural rock formations, such as in the ancient city of Rhodes, which was full of artificial grottoes.
Hirst's Reclining Woman was exhibited for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2017 "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" show at the Palazzo Grassi.
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.
© 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.
