The Hat Makes the Man is based on a 1920 collage of the same name by the Surrealist artist Max Ernst. Ernst's collage seems to have been inspired by the Sigmund Freud's statement that hats are symbols of repressed male desire. The collage is made of cut-out images of hats on intentionally phallic-like supports. Hirst has made a sculpture version with bronze casts of wooden pallets, like a sculptural collage. He deliberately makes the materials look different than they are; The Hat Makes the Man imitates painted wood. Hirst is deliberately playing with the fact that bronze is a hight status material for sculpture.

Visit the Country Park to see three major sculptures by Damien Hirst, which joined YSP as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI). YSI is a partnership between YSP, The Hepworth Wakefield, the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, and Leeds Art Gallery. YSI 2019 was a festival of sculpture that took place across Leeds and Wakefield from 22 June until 29 September 2019.