Damien Hirst finds a new canvas

News Release | India, Dec 2008
Damien Hirst finds a new canvas
Levi's® X Damien Hirst Limited-Edition Collection makes its debut
This month, the Levi's® brand announced the launch of Levi's® X Damien Hirst –
a limited-edition collection designed in collaboration with celebrated British artist Damien
Hirst. The collection enlists the creative genius of Hirst, an artist chosen for his groundbreaking talent and his love of Levi's® jeans, and pays homage to the iconography of the
Levi's® brand, Levi's® 501® jeans and Damien Hirst's amazing career.
“I love the idea of art you can wear,” offers artist Damien Hirst with regards to his
ongoing work with the Levi's® brand. He further explains that in working on this
collection, he is excited that, “this way a lot of people get to own my stuff and in a not too
precious way.”
"Pablo Picasso is credited with being the first major artist to wear Levi's® 501® jeans as
his creative uniform, but Jackson Pollock made dark, paint-splattered 501® jeans the
effigy of uncompromising creativity,” says Agnes Tann, Strategic Brand Planning Director
for the Levi's® brand, Asia Pacific Division based in Singapore. “World renowned artists
from Peter Blake and Max Ernst to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol all adopted
the Levi's® jeans as their favorite jeans. So, we are naturally thrilled and honored to
have a creative genius like Damien Hirst bring his unique perspective to our iconic 501®
jeans and the range of unique looks created for this collection."
The Levi's® X Damien Hirst collection draws on Hirst's love of the Levi's® brand. The
Levi's® brand designer Adrian Nyman worked closely with Hirst to showcase his art in an
exclusive, custom range of jeans and tops that is sure to be highly regarded by the most
discerning denim collectors. Hirst adds, “I've always worn Levi's® jeans and I saw a
collection that Adrian Nyman made using Warhol's art (on Levi's® denim) and loved it so
much I bought the whole collection.” When the opportunity presented itself for a
collaboration, involving Hirst, Nyman and the Levi's® brand,
Hirst offers, “I jumped at the chance!”
The collection revolves around three key themes of Damien Hirst's body of work –
the Skull, Spots and Butterfly. Levi's® 501® jeans in black and over-dye blue are
teamed with white, black and deep purple rock-inspired T-shirts emblazoned with iconic
Hirst imagery – butterflies, dots and skulls. Equally striking, an image blending Hirst's
black and white portrait with a skull, also appears on a white T-shirt. A tough denim and
leather jacket completes the look. Referencing his famous Spin paintings, a T-shirt, a
hoodie, a jacket and slim jeans for girls take on a psychedelic kaleidoscope of primary
colors. Throughout the collection, the Levi's® logo is set in a multi-colored dot
reminiscent of stained glass – a reference to Hirst's recent work.
Damien Hirst and the Levi's® Brand are a perfect match. Standing as reigning symbols
of rebellion, each rose from working-class roots to become creative icons. Hirst, the
original 'enfant terrible' of the '90s art scene, made his name suspending animals in
formaldehyde and more recently embellishing a human skull with over 1,000 carats of
diamonds.
The ultimate straight leg button-fly jeans, Levi's® 501® are tailored in an 'anti-fit' pattern
which makes the jeans wrap around the body effortlessly. A true legend in the fashion
world, Levi's® 501® only get better with time. Transcending fashion, yet endlessly in
style, Levi's® 501® jeans have been worn and loved by some of the greatest artists,
musicians, movie stars and fashion icons throughout history.
The Levi's® X Damien Hirst limited-edition capsule collection will be available at select
retailers around the world this Fall/Holiday season. In India, this collection will make its
debut in an exclusive set of stores across key cities in December 2008. Prices for the
jeans start at Rs. 6500, with the other products in the Limited-Edition assortment being
priced upwards of Rs.1900.
About The Levi's® Brand
Levi's® invented jeans in 1873 – since then its 501® jean has been worn by over 4.5
billion artists, movie stars, rock icons and young people from generation to generation.
Imitated by many, equalled by none, the Levi's® 501® Jean's unique design purity also
contributed to its iconic status as the artists' jean of choice, loved and celebrated by the
likes of Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Basquiat, Roy
Lichtenstein. Joseph Beuys even turned his into collages.
About Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst was born in Bristol, England in 1965. While still a student at Goldsmith's
College in 1988, he curated the now renowned student exhibition, Freeze, held in East
London. In this exhibition, Hirst brought together a group of young artists who would
come to define cutting-edge contemporary art in the 1990s. In 1991, he had his first solo
exhibition at the Woodstock Street Gallery, entitled 'In and Out of Love', in which he filled
the gallery with hundreds of live tropical butterflies, some of which were hatched from the
monochrome canvases that hung the walls. In 1992, he was part of the ground breaking
Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. In this show, he exhibited his now
famous 'Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living', a tiger shark in a
glass tank of formaldehyde. That same year he was nominated for the prestigious Tate
Gallery Turner Prize, and later won that coveted award in 1995.
Hirst's best known works are his paintings, medicine cabinet sculptures, and glass tank
installations. For the most part, his paintings have taken on two styles. One is an
arrangement of color spots with titles that refer to pharmaceutical chemicals, known as
Spot paintings. The second, his Spin paintings, are created by centrifugal force, when
Hirst places his canvases on a spinner, and pours the paint as they spin. In the medicine
cabinet pieces Hirst redefines sculpture with his arrangements of various drugs, surgical
tools, and medical supplies. His tank pieces, which contain dead animals that are
preserved in formaldehyde are another kind of sculpture and directly address the
inevitable mortality of all living beings. All of Hirst's works contain his ironic wit, and
question art's role in contemporary culture.
For additional information
Madison PR
Jahanvi / Fiero
+91.9820749846 / +91.9819967077
+91.22.66458319