Skull in Slaughtered Cow

A human skull is placed on a steel bar. The composition is located inside the rib cage of a slaughtered cow. Morbid and surreal, this small painting recalls the tradition of memento mori.

Damien Hirst's work is crossed by the fascination for death and its representations. The painting Skull in Slaughtered Cow explicitly associates two recurring motifs in the British artist’s œuvre: that of the skull and that of the animal body (more particularly of the cow). Used to spectacular and provocative installations (animals dissected in formalin, skull decorated with diamonds ...), Damien Hirst gives his obsession a pictorial form.

The work Skull in Slaughtered Skull was first shown by Pinault Collection in 2006 during the exhibition "Where are We Going? "