Name: Cupric Bromide
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst's Cupric Bromide (signed) is estimated to be worth between £3,250 and £4,850. This woodcut print, created in 2012, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 16%. This work has an auction history of three total sales since its entry to the market in December 2014. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £3,200 across one total sale. Over the past five years, the average return to the seller has been £2,720. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 55.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

October 2024

Christie's London

United Kingdom

December 2017

Christie's New York

United States

December 2014

Christie's London

United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

Cupric Bromide is a woodcut print from Damien Hirst’s 40 Woodcut Spots series from 2011. The square print shows four spots that are identical in size and shape, each depicting a unique colour. Across the artist’s vast oeuvre every spot painting represents a unique combination of colours. The 40 Woodcut Spots series is an exploration of colour and form that is distinctly Hirstian.

The cold repetition and sterile aesthetic of the 40 Woodcut Spots series is reminiscent of Hirst’s early pill cabinet works such as The Void from 2000. Both works evoke a sense of endless sameness and directly allude to the realms of medicine and science. Indeed, the chemical name of each print in this series evokes a nondescript powder or pill that is abstract in its scientific mode.

In its depiction of many spots, methodically arranged, this print appears like a packet of medical pills, further exacerbated by the print’s title. Cupric Bromide is formulaic and crisp in form, evoking a lack of human or artistic touch. Indeed, for many of the spot paintings throughout his career, Hirst employed assistants to produce them. This was part of the artist’s aims towards creating works that appear to have been produced mechanically, despite the way in which these prints and paintings are painstaking and laborious to produce.