The Post Gallery

A couple of weeks ago I was in Mexico City and stopped by Museo Jumex to check out the Damien Hirst exhibit titled “To Live Forever (For A While).” Even though Damien Hirst has become fairly mainstream and commercial, the exhibit was still pretty awesome. (Cue the part where I fancy myself as steward of the underground art scene even though in reality we all get excited to see the big shots who have “made it.”)

Exhibit Dates: March 23 – August 25, 2024

This is the first museum exhibition of Hirst’s work in Mexico and features pieces from across his career, ranging from 1986 to 2019. It’s a comprehensive look at his art. The exhibit includes 57 works ranging from installations, sculptures, and paintings.

The exhibition features some of Hirst’s most iconic series, including:

• Natural History: This series features animals preserved in formaldehyde, challenging ideas of life and death, including Hirt’s most iconic pieces displaying full-size, dead tiger sharks in formaldehyde.
• Spin Paintings: These works are created by spinning a canvas with paint applied, resulting in a unique and abstract design.
• Medicine Cabinets: These cabinets display an assortment of pharmaceutical products, prompting reflection on mortality and the medical field.
• Cherry Blossoms: This series presents colorful and intricate paintings of cherry blossoms, juxtaposing beauty with the ephemeral nature of life.
• Spot paintings: These paintings feature rows of colored dots, challenging traditional notions of painting.
• Butterfly paintings: These works incorporate real butterflies encased in colorful resin.

I personally enjoyed seeing this exhibit. There were some pieces in particular that caught my attention like, on one entire floor of the musuem, Hirst displays wallpaper comprised completely of cigarette butts. The wallpaper covers the huge walls on this particular wing of the museum. This was in reference to Hirst’s 2017 piece titled simply Cigarette Butts. Hirst has said, “The whole smoking thing is like a mini life cycle. For me the cigarette can stand for life. The packet with its possible cigarettes stands for birth. The lighter can signify God, which gives life to the whole situation. The ashtray represents death . . . because being metaphorical is ridiculous, but it’s unavoidable. . . They have a purity before you smoke them. They’re expensive, dangerous, from the point you light one to when you stub it out, it’s death.”

Many of the works on display have themes of death or symbols associated with death, hence the name of the exhibit “To Live Forever (For A While).” This is not too surprising since a fascination with death and decay has been a central theme throughout Hirst’s career.  

While there be sure to also check out Hirst’s famous diamond-encrusted human skull called For the Love of God (2007). Hirst says the work cost him more than $8,000,000 to create. If you Google the piece, you’ll see it’s a skull bedazzled with 8,601 diamonds affixed to it. This work apparently gained its title from Hirst’s mother. Whenever Hirst had “crazy ideas” in art, his mother would yell the phrase “For the love of God, what are you going to do next!”

The exhibit overall is a great opportunity to see a wide range of Hirst’s work, known for its thought-provoking themes and challenging ideas about art, life, and death. If you have the chance, I highly recommend checking it out.

“No, I don’t believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt.” – Damien Hirst