Hirst's piece is on the left, and is called "The Pursuit of Oblivion." It was made by Hirst in 2004. I find the artist's use of formaldehyde tanks to be an incredibly interesting medium in general, but I gravitated towards this piece because it seemed to have more parts than the other pieces I saw. I found out that this piece is actually a recreation of 'Painting,' a painting done in 1946 by Francis Bacon (pictured above to the right). In Bacon's painting, the artist's crucified figure was represented by two sides of beef submerged in a tank containing live fish. A cow's head and an umbrella were amongst the apparently symbolic objects added to the painting. Hirst's work does an interesting job of creating a modern twist on this work using his own medium. I also find it interesting that he's taken the concept of crucifixion, and focused instead on referring to a more artistic "oblivion."
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