The Physical Impossibility of Death
Hirst's preserved shark in vitrine confronts viewers with death made permanent. The work explores mortality, preservation, nature, and the limits of art. The dead animal suspended in preservative creates uncanny stillness and presence. Hirst examines humanity's relationship with death and attempts to control nature. The work became icon of Young British Artists movement.
Your Reaction
Similar Visual Art
The Persistence of Memory
Dalí's surrealist masterpiece features melting clocks in barren landscape. The work explores time, memory, consciousness, …
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Bosch's enigmatic triptych depicts paradise, earthly pleasures, and hell in vivid surreal imagery. The work …
The Scream
Munch's iconic image of existential anguish shows figure screaming against blood-red sky. The wavy lines …
The Elephants
Dalí's spindly-legged elephants carrying obelisks create impossible architecture that defies gravity. The work explores strength …
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Bosch's triptych depicts paradise, earthly pleasures, and hell in surreal detail. The work explores desire, …
The Burning Giraffe
Dalí painted this during Spanish Civil War as premonition of catastrophe. Female figures with drawer-filled …
Number 1A
Pollock's drip painting created through action and chance eliminates traditional composition. The all-over surface with …
Marilyn Diptych
Warhol's silkscreen diptych repeats Marilyn Monroe's face in vibrant color and fading black. The work …
Explore Related Domains
Discover connections across different types of entities
The Denial of Death
Becker's Pulitzer Prize-winning work synthesizes psychology, philosophy, and anthropology to argue that the fear of …
Because I could not stop for Death
Dickinson's meditation personifies Death as a gentleman caller. Through a carriage ride to eternity, it …
Being-Toward-Death
Heideggerian concept that authentic existence involves acknowledging death as one's ownmost possibility. Death is the …
Hard to Be a God
German's final film follows scientists observing a medieval planet unable to intervene. Through violence, filth, …
Skeleton Tree
Cave's devastating album created during his son's death. The music confronts grief's rawness without resolution …
Annihilation
Garland's science fiction horror follows a team entering a mysterious zone where reality mutates. Through …
I heard a Fly buzz when I died
Dickinson's death scene deflates transcendence with a fly's buzz. Through the mundane interrupting the sacred, …
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Dreyer's silent masterpiece uses close-ups of Falconetti's face to capture Joan's trial and execution. Through …