Demian Herst. From the Cradle to the Grave

The first in Russia exhibition of works of the famous British artist, a mega-star of international art stage, Damien Herst, will showcase 100 graphic pictures and one large-scale sculpture. The exhibition lets visitors trace not only the development of the author's ideas, but also importance of drawing in the artist's search. For Demian Herst, drawing is a permanent process which lasts from the cradle to the grave. The artists says that when he was a child his mother always gave him a new sheet of paper right when he told her than he had finished a previous drawing; so that her son went on drawing. Demian Herst is constantly drawing something. This keeps flow of his imagination running and does not call upon to crate a complete work of art. His vision is unbroken, it just moves from one sheet of paper to another, from album to album; from a sheet of plotting paper to a beer rack, a cheque, an envelope, a hotel form, and a paper page. The artist can draw on everything he has at hand. He created large-scale and sometimes absolutely impossible images - the shark swimming in a tank; the crucified cow; the whole life cycle of insects, who feed on a carrion cow's head. Many a ready sculpture sketches, accompanied with titles and estimation of parameters, are not brought alive yet. In the mid 1990s Demian Herst led out the legendary YBA (Young British Artists) generation and made the greatest critics and collectors pay attention to young British artists. It is in many respects his accomplishment that London is now called the new world capital of modern art. The exhibition Sensation, which showcased earth-shattering works of Herst and his New York contemporaries, was about to be banned by the Mayor Juliany, who decided that such art was able to undermine social, moral, religious, and aesthetic principles of society. This scandal was broadly covered by the press; and it made the YBA generation, and Damian Herst in particular, super-fashionable product of modern British culture. Damian Herst is the author not only of works of art and sensational exhibitions, but has also created clips for the Blur, participated in space development programmes held by the British National Aerospace Centre, and elaborated the concept of the legendary London Drugstore Restaurant. Demian Herst's exhibition is the result of long-term collaboration between the State Russian Museum and the British Council; the former joint project included "The Changing World" and "Electroearth".