Internationally Renowned Artist Damien Hirst Paints Guitar For War Child

Dec. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Monday December 6, 2010

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ARTIST DAMIEN HIRST PAINTS GUITAR FOR WAR CHILD

For immediate release:

Leading British artist Damien Hirst, whose bold works have set records in London’s auction houses, has painted a guitar using his celebrated ‘spin painting’ technique and donated the work to War Child.  The stunning guitar will be auctioned at Christie’s London (UK) showroom on 17th February 2011, with all proceeds going to support War Child’s work with children affected by conflict.  The Scarborough Nine guitar, made by Canadian manufacturer Carparelli, who generously donated the instrument for this project, will be on display at Christie’s over the holiday season. http://www.christies.com/about/locations/south-kensington/

Barbara Harmer, War Child’s Music & Special Initiatives Director in North America said, “War Child is thrilled to be the recipient of funds raised through this very generous and beautiful donation. The spin painted guitar is a stunning piece of art and will do immeasurable good for the children and families that War Child supports in some of the most devastated regions of the world.”

Painter, sculptor, and installation artist Damien Hirst is one of the world’s most commercially successful contemporary artists.  Born in Bristol, England in 1965, Hirst was the most prominent member of a group of artists known as the Young British Artists.  The group came to prominence following 1988’s widely acclaimed Freeze exhibition in London’s Docklands, and went on to dominate the art scene in Britain in the 1990’s.  

Hirst’s work explores the uncertainty at the core of human experience; love, life, death, loyalty and betrayal, through unexpected and unconventional media.  He is best known for the ‘Natural History’ works, which presents dead animals preserved in formaldehyde, such as ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,’ - a 14-foot tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a vitrine that became the iconic work of British art in the 1990’s.   His other famous works include A Thousand Years (1989), a glass case with maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head and For The Love of God, a platinum cast of an 18th century human skull covered in diamonds. Hirst is also known for his 'spin paintings,' manufactured on a rotating circular surface, and 'spot paintings,' consisting of rows of randomly-coloured dots or circles.

This is the second donation that Damien Hirst has made to the charity.  In 1995, Hirst contributed to a series of small spin paintings as part of a limited edition box curated by Brian Eno.  The boxes were sold at the Pagan Funwear fashion event, attended by Stella McCartney, members of U2, Oasis and Roxy Music.  

War Child is an international humanitarian organization with offices in London, Toronto and Amsterdam.  The charity works with children and their families who have suffered the horrors of conflict, to empower them to build futures free from violence and injustice.  



Special thanks to Damien Hirst (www.damienhirst.com) and Carparelli Guitars (www.carparelliguitars.com).
Images courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited. 



War Child works with children all over the world to reduce the effects of poverty, provide an education and to defend and promote child rights.  War Child works to help children whose lives have been torn apart by conflict, and provide them with the means to build a brighter future.  War Child works with local people and organizations in Afghanistan, Darfur (Sudan), Uganda, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Haiti.  www.warchild.ca

For more information and photos, please contact:
Fiona Hack
War Child
(416) 971-7474   1-866-WAR-CHILD (927-2445)
fiona@warchild.ca

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