Provenance
White Cube, London
Gagosian, New York
Private collection
Sale: Sotheby's New York, Contemporary Art, November 15, 2006 Lot 552
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Exhibited
London, Gagosian Gallery, Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011. January 12 -February 18, 2011
Literature
Damien Hirst, i want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now, London, 1997, p. 245 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
“ The colors project so much joy it’s hard to feel it, but it’s there. The horror underlying everything.”
DAMIEN HIRST

Introduced in 1986, Damien Hirst’s Pharmaceutical paintings have become his most widely recognized series to date. Appearing both structurally and spatially uniform, these rainbow freckled grids bewitch the mind, presenting one with a truly patternless pattern. The present lot, Levorphanol, 1995, is a well calculated testament to the pharmaceutical industry, contrasting the stimulation of color with the cold sedative of calculated form. Here, the evidence of the artist’s hand is simultaneously absent and present. The current lot, Levorphanol, 1995, employs the same famous, yet sterile grid pattern as the rest of the Pharmaceutical series. The rigid framework, in tandem with the precise execution of dots, alludes to the bleak nature of mass-produced drugs.

Though some dots may seem identical, each one is slightly different, creating a disorienting effect. Like the drugs from which these paintings derive their names, the paintings are marketed with bright, eye-catching colors to lure in the viewer, while hiding their true effect until fully absorbed. The right triangle shape of the canvas reflects this unease in drawing attention to the void beneath. The viewer considers the brightly colored grid and expects a square shape to match the layout of the dots. Hirst, however, confines the grid to an unexpected shape; leaving the viewer to try and reconcile the grid with the void. Levorphanol, 1995, keeps true to its subject, leaving the viewer blissfully disoriented and wanting more, simultaneously.
Artist Biography
Damien Hirst
British • 1965
There is no other contemporary artist as maverick to the art market as Damien Hirst. Foremost among the Young British Artists (YBAs), a group of provocative artists who graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in the late 1980s, Hirst ascended to stardom by making objects that shocked and appalled, and that possessed conceptual depth in both profound and prankish ways.
Regarded as Britain's most notorious living artist, Hirst has studded human skulls in diamonds and submerged sharks, sheep and other dead animals in custom vitrines of formaldehyde. In tandem with Cheyenne Westphal, now Chairman of Phillips, Hirst controversially staged an entire exhibition directly for auction with 2008's "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," which collectively totalled £111 million ($198 million).
Hirst remains genre-defying and creates everything from sculpture, prints, works on paper and paintings to installation and objects. Another of his most celebrated series, the 'Pill Cabinets' present rows of intricate pills, cast individually in metal, plaster and resin, in sterilized glass and steel containers; Phillips New York showed the largest of these pieces ever exhibited in the United States, The Void, 2000, in May 2017.
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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN COLLECTION

11

Damien Hirst

Levorphanol

1995
gloss household paint on canvas
27.1 X 27 in. (69 X 69 cm)
Titled “Levorphanol” across the stretcher bar.

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000

Sold for $218,500

Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

7 March 2013
New York

1
Ryan Sullivan
June 18, 2009 - January 20, 2010
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $60,000
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2
Dan Colen
Oy Vey 3
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $164,500
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3
Glenn Ligon
Silver Just Us #5
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $242,500
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4
Johnny Swing
“Half Dollar / Butterfly” chair
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $67,300
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5
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $110,500
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6
This lot is no longer available.
7
Rob Pruitt
I Love Bamboo (I hate you)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $98,500
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8
Wendell Castle
Black Edition “Big Table,” from the “Molar” series
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $74,500
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9
Mark Grotjahn
Butterfly (Black, Red, Orange)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $254,500
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10
Ettore Sottsass, Jr.
“Menta” totem
Estimate $20,000 - 25,000
Sold for $25,000
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11
Damien Hirst
Levorphanol
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $218,500
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12
Cecily Brown
S.A.P.
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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13
Albert Oehlen
Traurigkeit
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $362,500
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14
Andy Warhol
Knives
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,008,900
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15
Ed Ruscha
Anchor Stuck in Sand
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $550,000
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16
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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17
Gerhard Richter
Fuji (839-12)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $215,000
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18
Martin Kippenberger
Leiden Warum, Leiden Wozu (Suffer Why, Suffer What For)
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
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19
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $188,500
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20
Ron Arad
“Oh-Void 2” chair
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $122,500
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21
Richard Prince
Untitled (Massage)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $146,500
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22
George Condo
The Monk at the Brothel
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $266,500
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23
Maurizio Cattelan
A Perfect Day
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
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24
Gilbert & George
Wheel
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $104,500
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25
Louise Lawler
Going
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
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26
Jim Hodges
The Good News, Ta Nea, 3/20/2007 (Athens Greece) 3/20/2007
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $30,000
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27
Ken Price
Oh Gee
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $314,500
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28
Sylvie Fleury
Eternal Wow on Shelf (cyan/purple)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $80,500
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29
This lot is no longer available.
30
Tom Friedman
Inside Out
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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31
Anselm Reyle
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $98,500
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32
T.V. Santhosh
Enemies' Enemy II
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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33
Eric Fischl
The Cattle Auction (A Study)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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34
Thomas Houseago
Untitled (Coin Mask I)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $74,500
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35
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (3 Text Pieces)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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36
Richard Prince
Eden Rock (oil rig and cowboy)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $200,500
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37
Francesco Clemente
Zip
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $68,500
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38
Karel Appel
Personage
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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39
Ahmed Alsoudani
You No Longer Have Hands
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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40
Elliott Hundley
Garland
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $104,500
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41
Os Gêmeos
Landscape
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $134,500
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42
Studio Job
“Perished” table
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $68,500
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Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

7 March 2013 New York

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Damien Hirst

11

Damien Hirst

Levorphanol

Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

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7 March 2013
New York