Name: How To Disappear Completely
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 4.9 (183 reviews)

How To Disappear Completely
Signed Print

Damien Hirst

£2,450-£3,600 VALUE (EST.)

$4,500-$6,500 VALUE (EST.)

$4,100-$6,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥21,000-¥30,000 VALUE (EST.)

€2,800-€4,100 VALUE (EST.)

$24,000-$35,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥400,000-¥580,000 VALUE (EST.)

$3,000-$4,450 VALUE (EST.)

40% AAGR

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

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

April 2009

Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany

How To Disappear Completely - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

How To Disappear Completely is one of 14 editioned prints in Damien Hirst’s second volume of In A Spin, The Action Of The World Upon Things. The print shows a spiral in the centre of the composition, rendered with a thin grey line and set against a plain backdrop.

read more about In A Spin

Inspired by his very famous Spin paintings, Hirst created the prints in this series by attaching copper plates to a spin machine in his studio, onto which he drew linear forms with a range of sharp tools like needles and screwdrivers as the machine spun. Though using a similar technique and spin machine as the original Spin paintings, a print like How To Disappear Completely is starkly different in its use of thin lines and lack of colour.

The second half of the series’ title, ‘The Action of the World on Things’ derives from a phrase the artist coined in 1999 when he was clarifying the origins of his spot paintings. He distinguished two aspects of his work: “an involvement with death and decay, and ideas and life: the action of the world on things exists somewhere, and the colour exists somewhere else. And it’s fantastic.” In A Spin, The Action Of The World Upon Things is said to unite these two elements of Hirst’s work.