In ancient legend, Pegasus is the “mythical creature who sprang from the blood of Medusa’s neck.” In famed contemporary artist Damien Hirst’s version, Pegasus is a flying horse encrusted completely with crystals residing in the Brasserie of Light, the Martin Brudnizki-designed restaurant in the British department store Selfridges. The sculpture, standing at twenty-four feet with a thirty-foot wingspan, is Hirst’s largest artwork in London, but isn’t the first time he has used this mythical creature in his work. Businessman Richard Caring says of his latest restaurant in Vogue UK: "The Brasserie of Light is a new look spectacle where the input of Damien Hirst, Martin Brudnizki and the absolute strength of Selfridges; this mix has resulted in what I believe to be something very beautiful. It is about light, make-believe and dreams." Hirst explains: “I love the myth of the Pegasus and this is such an exciting project and I love the scale of it. I hope it’s going to look like something beautiful from another world.”
Gone But Not Forgotten
Damien Hirst's Gone but not Forgotten is the gilded skeleton of a three-metre tall woolly mammoth currently on display in the garden of the Faena Hotel Miami Beach. The sculpture, which I saw recently when I was in Miami to see some tennis, was originally auctioned in support of amfAR, an organization dedicated to using innovative research to end the global AIDS epidemic. Hirst said of the sculpture: "The mammoth comes from a time and place that we cannot ever fully understand. Despite its scientific reality, it has attained an almost mythical status and I wanted to play with these ideas of legend, history and science by gilding the skeleton and placing it within a monolithic gold tank. It's such an absolute expression of mortality, but I've decorated it to the point where it's become something else, I've pitched everything I can against death to create something more hopeful, it is gone but not forgotten."
Art Basel: Miami
Art F City reports from the international art show: "For the most part, art was selling fast and early. By midday, 'Devil’s Gate,' one of Damien Hirst’s cases of insect specimens (art fair stalwarts) had gone for $1.9 million at White Cube, and a large pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama (who has a show up now in New York) for $600,000 at David Zwirner."
The NY Observer Gallerist has a photo gallery of the show, and The New York Times profiles Juan Yarur, one of Chile's most prominent art collectors, who is "one of many art collectors in South America who were introduced to the international art world at Art Basel in Miami Beach..." as well one of the many South Americans who are part of the emerging market on that continent. In addition, a painting by Phil Fung in Miami was stolen. Artist Arnaud Pages to the reporter: "'Look, you guys are talking about it. It’s publicity for him you know?...If he was really smart, he probably stole it himself to get the publicity.'”