The Last Supper
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors
Medium: Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Year: 1999
Sheet: 152.5 x 101 cm
Edition: 150
Artist’s Proofs: 25 AP
Publisher: The Paragon Press, London
Literature: Contemporary Art in Print, The Paragon Press 1995-2000, London, 201, pp. 230-243
The Last Supper by Damien Hirst – Paragon (paragonpress.co.uk)
The set comprises: Beans & Chips; Chicken; Corned Beef; Cornish Pasty; Meatballs; Mushroom; Omelette; Salad; Sandwich; Sausages; Steak & Kidney; Dumpling; Liver, Bacon & Onions.
“I can’t understand why some people believe completely in medicine and not in art, without questioning either.”
The 13 prints that make up The Last Supper refer to the number gathered at the biblical Last Supper. Hirst raises the question of whether our faith in medicine, with its promise to stave off disease and death, is now comparable to our faith in religion. He conflates minimalist pharmaceutical packaging with the form and style of art, wondering “why some people believe completely in medicine and not in art, without questioning either.” Hirst recalls watching his mother fill a prescription at a pharmacy, taking note of how at ease she was with the visual motifs used to market drugs. “My mum was looking at the same kind of stuff in the chemist’s and believing in it completely. And then, when looking at it in an art gallery, completely not believing in it.”
Each of the Last Supper prints features a pharmaceutical label that has been altered. The names of medicines have been replaced with those of common British foods (“Ethambutol Hydrochloride” becomes “Steak and Kidney,” for example) and the names or logos of the manufacturers have been replaced by those of the artist—Hirst’s own brand, so to speak. Enlarged to a heroic scale, the prints pose the question of whether pharmaceuticals—a staple of many contemporary diets—may have become not only the salvation in which we put our faith, but our daily bread.
The Last Supper, 1999
1. Sausages
2. Meatballs
3. Dumplings
4. Liver, Bacon and Onions
5. Chicken
6. Salad
7. Steak and Kidney
8. Corned Beef
9. Cornish Pasty
10. Mushroom
11. Omelette
12. Sandwich
13. Beans & Chips
Auction Results
1. Single Prints
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 4,445
DAMIEN HIRST
Steak and Kidney, from The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
Phillips London: 8 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 4,064
DAMIEN HIRST
Dumpling, from The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
2. Complete Sets
Christie’s London: 26 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 37,800
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
The Last Supper, 1999
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors on wove paper
Each signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
Sotheby’s New-York: 18 October 2023
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 50,800
Damien Hirst
b.1965
The Last Supper
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors, 1999, each signed in pencil, numbered 120/150 in ink on the accompanying certificate, on Somerset satin wove paper, published by Paragon Press, unframed (13 prints)
sheets approx.: 1535 by 1015 mm 60⅜ by 40 in