New York, Nadine Johnson, 2007. Thick paper invitation card (28.0 x 21.6 cm). Printed on both sides in colour, with the handwritten signature of the artist.

This is the official invitation for both the opening and subsequent dinner of Damien Hirst’s exposition at “Lever House, Park Avenue, New York, on Saturday, November 10, 2007”. Title of the exposition is School: The Archaeology Of Lost Desires, Comprehending Infinity And The Search For Knowledge, printed on the verso in mirror image and symbolized on the recto by a mirror clock [reminiscent of works by the American artist Walter Carl Glück, a.k.a. Victor IV, and Bulgar Finn (1929-1986)]. Damien Steven Hirst (born 1965) is a leading English artist. “He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs), who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom’s richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List. During the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended. Death is a central theme in Hirst’s works. He became famous for a series of artworks in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved - sometimes having been dissected - in formaldehyde. The best-known of these was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot (4.3m) tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a clear display case. He has also made ‘spin paintings’, created on a spinning circular surface, and ‘spot paintings’, which are rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants. In September 2008, Hirst made an unprecedented move for a living artist by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby’s by auction and bypassing his long-standing galleries. The auction raised £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction as well as Hirst’s own record with £10.3 million for The Golden Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde.” (Wikipedia). A very well-preserved card, only some very minor signs of handling in the margins, otherwise perfect.