Damien Hirst

£1,000-£2,000 VALUE (EST.)

AUD2,000-AUD4,000 VALUE (EST.)

CAD2,000-CAD3,000 VALUE (EST.)

CNY8,000-CNY15,000 VALUE (EST.)

€1,000-€2,000 VALUE (EST.)

HKD9,000-HKD20,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥170,000-¥330,000 VALUE (EST.)

$1,000-$2,000 VALUE (EST.)

This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

Meaning & Analysis

Ho Ho Ho is a signed type 'C' photograph produced by renowned contemporary artist, Damien Hirst. The print, made in 1999, is a colour photograph of a woman bending over underneath some mistletoe. The woman is scantily dressed in black lingerie and due to her bending position towards the left of the composition, the viewer cannot see her face. Tucked into her bottom are two tubes, one which says ‘ART’ the other which says ‘ADVERTISING.’

The image in this print is highly provocative, and some viewers might find it offensive. Hirst, however, is known as a polemical artist who frequently causes uproar with his daring and bold art. Hirst rose to fame in the late 1980s in London, after studying Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College. He has become one of the most notorious artists of his generation due to the way he breaks boundaries with his artworks which span from installations, to sculptures, prints and drawings.

Hirst is known for pushing the boundaries of what can be considered fine art and good taste, as evidenced in Ho Ho Ho which could be viewed as a vulgar image. Other works by Hirst which have divided audiences are A Thousand Years, made in 1990, which showed a pair of interlinked glass cells which housed a swarm of flies feeding off a rotting cows head, as well as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, made in 1991, which consisted of a tiger shark submerged in formaldehyde in a glass-panel display case.