Name: Curare
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (233 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst’s Curare (signed) is estimated to be worth between £7,000 and £10,500. This woodcut print from 2011 has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 6%. This work has an auction history of three total sales since its entry to the market in April 2019. Over the past 12 months, the average selling price was £6,696, with the hammer price ranging from £5,185 in December 2020 to £6,696 in February 2025. The five-year auction history demonstrates the average return to the seller as £5,049. This artwork is part of a limited edition of 55.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

February 2025

Christie's New York

United States

September 2024

Christie's London

United Kingdom

December 2020

Sotheby's New York

United States

April 2019

Phillips New York

United States

Meaning & Analysis

Curare is a woodcut print from Damien Hirst’s 40 Woodcut Spots series. This square composition is an example of Hirst’s fascination with exploring colour, showing four spots identical in size and shape. Each spot is a different colour and every print in the series represents a unique set of colour combinations.

The 40 Woodcut Spots series is representative of a vast body of work in Hirst’s oeuvre that has become iconic to his name. There are over 1000 spot paintings in existence, dating from 1988 to 2011, where Hirst has produced an average of 60 spot paintings a year. The grid formula for these paintings is the basis for an endless series where Hirst can infinitely explore harmonious and contrasting colour combinations.

Fascinated by intuitive colour choice from his days at Goldsmiths, Hirst claims that the spot paintings have removed any problems he previously had with colour, allowing him to present a perfect arrangement of colour that is never repeated. Hirst explains that, “mathematically, with the spot paintings, I probably discovered the most fundamentally important thing in any kind of art. Which is the harmony of where colour can exist on its own, interacting with other colours in a perfect format.”