Spanish artist shocks with Damien Hirst gun sculpture
Last Updated: Sunday, February 15, 2009 | 2:57 PM ET
CBC News
A statue of British artist Damien Hirst pointing a gun at his head has caused a stir at the 28th Madrid International Contemporary Art Fair, known as ARCO.
Sculptor Eugenio Merino's piece puts Hirst in a suicidal pose with blood pouring from a bullet wound to his head. It was unveiled at ARCO's launch over the weekend.
The piece has already been sold for $41,290 Cdn to a collector in Florida.
"Hirst is always trying to think of ways to make his art the most expensive," Merino told Bloomberg News.
"If he killed himself, then the value of his art would increase a lot."
Called For the Love of Gold, the work of parody was produced over a two-month period and refers to Hirst's For the Love of God — a diamond-encrusted platinum skull that was reportedly sold in the summer of 2007 for more than $100 million to a group of investors.
The life-size silicone sculpture uses real human hair and glass eyes. Hirst is posed on his knees with a Colt 45 in his right hand pressed against his temple wearing a skull T-shirt.
It's in a tank that looks similar to the ones Hirst himself uses to display dead animals pickled in formaldehyde.
Hirst is known as the bad boy of art.
After capturing the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize in 1995, he's created shocking sculptures including one of a 3.7-metre tiger shark and other animals preserved in formaldehyde, insect-encrusted canvases and pharmaceutical-inspired pieces.
