Publisher Penguin are marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species with this rather splendid edition boasting cover art painted by Damien Hirst.
Says Hirst of the project:
I was given a paperback copy of On the Origin of Species many years ago by a friend and I loved it, especially the contentious aspects of it. Being brought up a Catholic and questioning the nonsensical creation theory, it was exciting... I suppose the work, in a modest way, acknowledges Darwin's analytical mind and his courage to believe in those ideas that questioned the very fabric of existence and belief in his time.
Full article and artwork at the Guardian Science Blog. Worth going to for the comments alone.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
While I was at work, Sciencepunk beat me to posting that Damien Hirst (of dead-shark fame) has created an original artwork for the anniversary reissue of Darwin's On the Origin of Species:
Human skull in space (oil on canvas)
Damien Hirst
Hirst says:
As in a lot of my work, there's a nod to the…
This story, if true, is rather sad. 2009 will be a major date for evolutionary biology, both the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, and the 150th of the publication of the Origin (note to self: must publish earth-shaking treatise on 50th birthday to make future commemorations simpler*.)…
Two hundred years ago today, in the little country town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Charles Robert Darwin was born. No one then could have known that, fifty years and nine months later, Charles would deliver a treatise that would forever change our understanding of our place in nature. That is…
I keep reading articles for and against Darwin Day Celebrations spouting about "Darwinists" and "Darwinism". As I sat down to write my own post to "Blog for Darwin", I couldn't get these "-isms" and "-ists" out of my head. I really wanted to write more about the man behind the theory or the amazing…
Apparently it's not true that Hirst's original choice was a picture of Ben Stein's head in a tank of formaldehyde.
That painting is hideous! blech!
I'll say one thing, its certainly different from my proposed cover for Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle".
http://sneerreview.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-beagle.html
Hirst is proof that capitalism kills art. Wealthy speculators investing in a portfolio of pieces that make only the shallowest social commentary imaginable. Ah, but they make *money*.
Must be good, huh?
Poor Darwin deserves someone compelling.
That will go great with my copy of The Descent of Man with the H. R. Giger cover.
It's a ripoff of the style of '50s-era Francis Bacon, especially the pope series.
And a human skull? How trite and generic.
Haven't you heard, Colugo? Diamond encrusted skulls are Hirst's thang now. It's all deep. Real deep. About death... and... wealth... and, um, social ills! Yes. Millions and millions of dollars deep.
Phew, I always hated that guy. I was worried I was the only one.
thanks.
Looks like Damien Hirst illustrating a pamphlet about the evils of evolution by Jack Chick.
As I noted in a comment at Bioephemera, "Hell, that's the cover a militant Creationist would choose if they wished to portray evolution as a godless, soulless, hopeless, cold, thing of pointless struggle and death."