Butterflies first appeared prominently in Hirst’s work in 1991 with the installation In and Out of Love, one of the most memorable projects of the Young British Artists period. In this exhibition, live butterflies were allowed to hatch inside the gallery space, feeding on fruit, flying freely among visitors, and eventually dying on the gallery floor.

Damien Hirst, In & Out of Love (White Paintings & Live Butterflies), 1991, installed at Tate Modern, London, 2012. Image: © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2023. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd, Artwork: © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved/ DACS, London/ARS, NY 2023

The employment of butterflies in Hirst’s practice can be traced all the way back to his first solo exhibition, the legendary In and Out of Love installation, 1991, held at a vacant commercial space near Anthony d’Offay Gallery, where the artist worked as a part-time technician.  Upstairs, butterflies hatched from pupae embedded in five white canvases, and spent the duration of the show mating, floating around, and laying new eggs; on view downstairs was a series of monochromatic paintings with dead butterflies pressed into the surfaces. The vivid and disconcerting image of these dead insects was so striking that a detail of one of these latter canvases was chosen for the cover of the pilot issue of Frieze magazine that same year.

Alongside this installation, Hirst created paintings incorporating real butterflies attached to monochrome surfaces. The works immediately introduced a paradox that would remain central to the series: the viewer is drawn to the extraordinary beauty of the insect while simultaneously confronted with the reality that the artwork is composed of dead creatures. This early project established the butterfly as both subject and material. Rather than painting butterflies in a traditional sense, Hirst uses the wings themselves as pictorial elements, turning natural specimens into components of a constructed image.

Symbolism: Transformation, Mortality, and the Soul

The symbolic resonance of the butterfly has deep historical roots. Across many cultures, the butterfly has been associated with transformation, resurrection, and the human soul. Its life cycle—from caterpillar to chrysalis to winged insect—has long served as a metaphor for spiritual renewal and rebirth. Hirst deliberately draws upon this symbolism. In his work, the butterfly becomes a meditation on the fragility of life and the inevitability of death. The creature’s short lifespan and delicate beauty make it an ideal symbol for the transience of existence.

At the same time, the butterfly paintings reflect Hirst’s fascination with how humans aestheticize death. The insects are arranged in visually harmonious compositions that celebrate color, symmetry, and decorative beauty. Yet beneath this elegance lies a disturbing reality: the works are constructed from the remains of once-living organisms. This duality between attraction and discomfort is central to their impact.

The Kaleidoscope Paintings

Beginning in the early 2000s, Hirst expanded the butterfly motif into one of the most recognizable series of his career: the Kaleidoscope Paintings. In these works, hundreds of butterfly wings are arranged into highly symmetrical geometric compositions radiating from a central point. The paintings often resemble mandalas, stained-glass windows, or intricate sacred diagrams. Their luminous colors and radial patterns produce a hypnotic visual effect.

“The death of an insect that still has this really optimistic beautify of a wonderful thing.”

The shift from isolated butterflies to kaleidoscopic compositions represents a conceptual transformation. Individual insects are no longer presented as specimens but become units within a larger decorative structure. Nature is reorganized into an ordered system governed by symmetry and repetition.

The result is both mesmerizing and unsettling. The works evoke religious architecture and sacred ornamentation while simultaneously reminding viewers that the radiant patterns are built from fragments of dead butterflies.

Religion, Mandalas, and Sacred Geometry

Many of the kaleidoscope paintings evoke religious imagery. Their circular structures recall the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals as well as mandalas used in Hindu and Buddhist traditions to symbolize the structure of the universe.

This connection to sacred geometry reflects Hirst’s long-standing interest in belief systems. The butterfly paintings suggest that art can occupy a space similar to religion, offering visual experiences that inspire contemplation and transcendence without necessarily promoting a specific doctrine.

Through symmetry, repetition, and radiant color, Hirst creates compositions that feel almost devotional. The paintings invite prolonged contemplation, encouraging viewers to lose themselves in patterns that appear both cosmic and meticulously constructed.

Yet the tension between spiritual aspiration and biological reality remains unresolved. The works offer visions of harmony while quietly reminding us of the mortality that underlies their creation.

Beauty as Provocation

Unlike some of Hirst’s more confrontational works, the butterfly paintings initially appear gentle and decorative. Their vibrant colors and refined compositions draw viewers in with immediate visual pleasure.

However, this beauty functions as a subtle provocation. The viewer eventually becomes aware that the paintings depend upon the destruction of the very creatures that make them beautiful. The aesthetic experience becomes complicated by ethical and existential questions.

This strategy reflects Hirst’s broader artistic approach. Rather than shocking viewers outright, the butterfly works seduce them first and disturb them afterward. The tension between attraction and discomfort creates a complex emotional response that lingers long after the initial encounter.

Technique and Material

Technically, the butterfly paintings are highly controlled compositions. The wings are carefully arranged on panels painted with glossy industrial paint, often in monochrome backgrounds that heighten the brilliance of the insects’ natural colors.

Symmetry plays a crucial role. Each wing is positioned to create balanced patterns that guide the viewer’s eye across the surface. The precision of these arrangements contrasts with the organic irregularities of the butterflies themselves.

The works also blur the boundary between painting, collage, and assemblage. While they function visually as paintings, they are constructed objects that incorporate elements of natural history display, taxidermy, and decorative design.

Seen up close, the viewer becomes aware of the physical fragility of the wings and the individuality of each insect. From a distance, these details dissolve into dazzling abstract compositions.

Major Butterfly Series

Over time, Hirst has developed several bodies of work based on the butterfly motif.

The earliest works stem from In and Out of Love, where individual butterflies were incorporated into paintings and installations that explored life cycles and mortality.

The Kaleidoscope Paintings remain the most iconic development of the motif. Their monumental scale and radiant symmetry transformed the butterfly into a central element of Hirst’s visual language.

Closely related works include the Cathedral Paintings, which explicitly reference stained-glass windows, and later mandala-like compositions that emphasize circular geometry and spiritual symbolism.

More recently, Hirst has revisited the motif in large-scale editions and print series such as The Souls, The Empresses, and The Kaleidoscopes, demonstrating the enduring importance of the butterfly within his practice.

Institutional Presence and Exhibitions

Butterfly paintings have been prominently featured in major exhibitions devoted to Hirst’s work. They appeared in the artist’s large retrospective at Tate Modern and have been included in numerous international museum shows.

The early installation In and Out of Love is now held in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, reflecting its significance within the history of contemporary British art.

The butterfly motif has also expanded beyond traditional painting. In recent years, Hirst has translated the kaleidoscopic imagery into architectural and design projects, including large stained-glass installations that extend the visual language of the paintings into physical space.

Damien Hirst’s butterfly paintings remain among the most recognizable images associated with his career. They demonstrate the artist’s ability to combine decorative beauty with philosophical depth, transforming fragile natural elements into powerful symbolic compositions.

More than simple aesthetic objects, these works explore humanity’s relationship with mortality, spirituality, and the desire to impose order on the natural world. Their radiant surfaces conceal complex questions about life, death, and the transformation of living beings into art.

In this sense, the butterfly paintings represent a distillation of Hirst’s broader artistic project. They are at once elegant and unsettling, celebratory and melancholic. Beneath their extraordinary beauty lies a quiet reminder of life’s impermanence—a reminder rendered all the more powerful by the brilliance with which it is displayed.

DAMIEN HIRST
Eternity, 2002-2004
Butterflies and gloss household paint on canvas.
84×210 inches (213.4 x 533.4 cm)

Love Affair, 2001

Property from a Prestigious Collection
Sotheby’s London: 4 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 400,000
GBP 320,000 / USD 427,490

Love Affair | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2026 | Sotheby’s

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Love Affair, 2001
Household gloss on canvas with butterflies
100-3/8 x 69-3/8 inches (255 x 176.2 cm)
Signed (on a label affixed to the reverse)

Untitled, 2000

Modern Visionaries – The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection
Christie’s London: 6 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 127,000 / USD 169,660

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Untitled | Christie’s

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Untitled, 2000
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
30×48 inches (76.2 x 121.9 cm)

#3. Untitled, 2000

Christie’s New-York: 15 May 2025
Estimated: USD 150,000 – 200,000
USD 378,000

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Untitled | Christie’s

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Untitled, 2000
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
30 1/2 x 48 1/2 inches (76.4 x 122.2 cm)

#4. Butcher’s Love, 2008

Sotheby’s London: 5 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 254,000 / USD 325,120

Butcher’s Love | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1960)
Butcher’s Love, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
36×36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Signed twice, titled, dated 2008 and dedicated for Martin (on the reverse)

#5. Damned If You Don’t, Damned If You Do, 2005

Phillips New-York: 14 May 2025
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 400,000
USD 304,800

Damien Hirst Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session

Rapture, 2003

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
PASSED

Rapture | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Rapture, 2003
Butterfly wings on household gloss on canvas in artist’s frame
Diameter: 105 3/4 inches (268.6 cm)

Full of Love, 1998

Christie’s New-York: 20 November 2025
Estimated: USD 250,000 – 350,000
PASSED

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Full of Love | Christie’s

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Full of Love, 1998
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
36×60 inches (91.4 x 152.4 cm)
Signed, titled and dated twice ‘Full of Love. 98. Damien Hirst 98.’ (on the overlap)
Signed again ‘D Hirst’ (on the stretcher)

DAMIEN HIRST
Ascent, 2018
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 83 7/8 inches (213 cm)
Signed, titled, inscribed and dated
‘Onward and Upward Baby Fuck ’em All! ‘Ascent’ D Hirst Damien Hirst 2018′
Stamped twice with the artist’s stamp on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Creed, 2006
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 96 inches (243.8 cm)
Stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated ”Creed’ 2006 HIRST’ on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Omnipotence, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 60 inches (152.4 cm)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated ‘“Omnipotence” Damien Hirst 2008’ on the reverse
Signed and stamped with the artist’s stamp ‘D. Hirst’ on the stretcher

DAMIEN HIRST
Untitled (Birthday Card), 1999
Household gloss and butterflies on canvas
84 x 84 1/2 inches (213.5 x 214.5 cm)
Signed ‘D Hirst’ on the stretcher
Signed, titled and dated ”Untitled (Birthday Card)’ 1999 Damien Hirst’ on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Midas Asteroid, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
72 x 47 7/8 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘”Midas Asteroid” 2007 2007 Damien Hirst’ on the reverse; signed ‘DHirst’ on the stretcher

DAMIEN HIRST
Covenant, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
84×84 inches (213.4 x 213.4 cm)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated “‘Covenant’ 2007 Damien Hirst” on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Reconciliation, 2018
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 72 inches (182.9 cm)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp
Titled and dated “2018 Damien Hirst ‘Reconciliation'” on the reverse

#5. Love Will Never Die, 1999

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 250,000 – 350,000
GBP 535,500 / USD 676,563
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965) (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Love Will Never Die, 1999
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 84 inches (213.4 cm)

DAMIEN HIRST
Briareus, 2012
Entomological specimens and Hammerite paint on canvas
365.8 x 243.8 cm (144 x 95 7/8 inches)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated on the backing board

#8. Eshara, 2019

Phillips London: 30 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 406,400 / USD 516,456

#10. Wonderful Week, 2008

Christie’s London: 14 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 327,600 / USD 397,235

Damien Hirst (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Wonderful Week, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
72×72 inches (182.8 x 182.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘2008 “Wonderful Week” Damien Hirst’ (on the reverse)
Signed ‘Damien Hirst’ (on the stretcher)

DAMIEN HIRST
Cancer, 2008
Butterfly and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 24 inches (61 cm)
Signed, titled and dated “Damien Hirst “Cancer” 2008″ on the reverse

#2. Forgiven, 2008

Phillips Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 6,000,000 – 9,000,000
HKD 7,510,000 / USD 965,768

Damien Hirst – 20th Century & Conte… Lot 10 December 2022 | Phillips

DAMIEN HIRST
Forgiven, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 213.4 cm (84 inches)
Signed, titled and dated on the stretcher

DAMIEN HIRST
Omnipotence, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 60 inches (152.4 cm)
Signed, stamped, titled and dated on the backing board
Signed and stamped on the stretcher

#8. Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder, 1998

Record Breakers

DAMIEN HIRST
Eternity, 2002-2004
Butterflies and gloss household paint on canvas.
84×210 inches (213.4 x 533.4 cm)

DAMIEN HIRST
Creed, 2006
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 96 inches (243.8 cm)
Stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated ”Creed’ 2006 HIRST’ on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Covenant, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
84×84 inches (213.4 x 213.4 cm)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp, titled and dated “‘Covenant’ 2007 Damien Hirst” on the reverse

DAMIEN HIRST
Reconciliation, 2018
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 72 inches (182.9 cm)
Signed, stamped with the artist’s stamp
Titled and dated “2018 Damien Hirst ‘Reconciliation'” on the reverse

Damien Hirst’s Reconciliation, 2018, is a hypnotic example of the artist’s most recent series of large-scale butterfly works. The wings of butterflies are set in meticulous, concentric circles, with a Hebomoia Glaucippe butterfly at the very center, functioning as a point of visual focus. The round, uniform composition of the work has a soothing, even spiritual effect, reminiscent of the mandala, an intricate, stylized representation of the divinely-ordered cosmos common to Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Shinto religious traditions. The eye moves around Reconciliation like a penitent Catholic walks a prayer labyrinth, a concentric path for contemplation, found in the gardens of Catholic monasteries, or paved into the stones of cathedral floors.

Hirst’s deployment of Catholic references in his works strongly correlates with his use of butterflies as art materials. While his first solo exhibition, In and Out of Love, 1991, featured live butterflies, it wasn’t until the early 2000s, with his Kaleidoscope series (2001-present), that Hirst began using butterfly wings in earnest as a medium. In the mid-2000s, he executed a series of 150 concentric butterfly works, smaller in scale than Reconciliation, with each work taking its title from an entry in the Book of Psalms in the Bible. The Cathedrals series, begun c. 2007, draws a direct link to perhaps the strongest Catholic visual reference for Hirst’s butterflies: the stained-glass windows of Catholic cathedrals. Hirst recently brought this connection to its apex with a stained-glass skylight of butterflies for Claridge’s, London, in 2022.

Beautiful Architect, 2003

Sotheby’s London: 30 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 882,000 / USD 1,072,470

Beautiful Architect | Modern & Contemporary Day Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST  (B. 1965)
Beautiful Architect, 2003
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
63×63 inches (160×160 cm)

Mesmerizing in its geometrical complexity, Beautiful Architect from 2003 is a dazzling example of Damien Hirst’s iconic butterfly paintings. Hirst first began sticking the bodies of dead butterflies into thick layers of household gloss on canvas in the early 1990s, but it was not until 2001 that Hirst began his archetypal Kaleidoscope paintings. Inspired by Victorian naturalists who bred and organized butterflies by category for scientific understanding, Hirst began to arrange the insects by color into a vivid mosaic-like surface. As a larger oeuvre of work, the butterfly works serve as rumination on the most important concern for Hirst – death as channeled through the two dominating belief structures of contemporary existence: religion and science. A visual feast of vibrant color and elaborate pattern, the present work is composed of a kaleidoscope of delicate butterfly wings, arranged upon a shining gold background to create an organic stained-glass window, encouraging the viewer to focus on the extraordinary – yet fragile – beauty of the natural world.

The butterfly has become an iconic motif in Hirst’s highly developed artistic lexicon, signifying the soul itself. The association of the butterfly with religion and spirituality is a venerable one: the Ancient Greeks employed an identical word for ‘butterfly’ and ‘soul,’ whilst in Christian tradition the rebirth of a butterfly from its cocoon symbolizes the miracle of Christ’s resurrection. The incredibly detailed symmetry of Beautiful Architect is reminiscent of the intricate stained glass in Europe’s great cathedrals.

Striking a delicate balance between tragic poignancy and exultant splendor, Beautiful Architect interweaves religion, science and art, distinct categories each with its own fervent claim to truth, to create an object of bewildering beauty. Ephemeral and bewildering in its beauty, the present work becomes a powerful icon for humankind’s own temporal existence and life cycle. The delicate and effervescent butterflies bestow an unrivalled expression of the beauty and fragility of life. Hirst captures the oxymoronic beauty of horror, and horror of beauty, in a complex metaphor: the caterpillar dies in its chrysalis and is reborn as a butterfly. This delicate creature dies, but in doing so gives birth to a beautiful object, the work of art.

Omniscience, 2007

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 27 April 2022
Estimated: HKD 5,000,000 – 7,000,000
HKD 4,410,000 / USD 562,012

Damien Hirst 達米恩・赫斯特 | Omniscience 全知 | Contemporary Evening Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Omniscience, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
102×102 inches (258.6 x 258.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2007 on the reverse

Arguably Britain’s most famous living artist, Damien Hirst is known for his controversial and provocative oeuvre of multi-colored spots, preserved animals, medicine cabinets and diamond-encrusted skulls that explore the complex relationships between art, life, death, beauty, religion and science. Perhaps one of his most recognizable and iconic motifs, Hirst’s butterfly art established the artist as a household name, and has been featured in major notable institutions such as the Tate. Hirst first began sticking the bodies of dead butterflies into thick layers of household gloss on canvas in the late 1980s, but it was not until 2001 that Hirst began his archetypal Kaleidoscope paintings in which the artist carefully sticks the wings of butterflies into symmetrical, visually pleasing compositions. Omniscience is a monumental Kaleidoscope painting executed in 2007, the year before he started his Psalm paintings in 2008. Here, Hirst presents us with a kaleidoscopic vision of hundreds of meticulously placed butterfly wings, set against a sizzling backdrop of vivid red gloss paint. Omniscience is a highly kinetic work in which the butterfly wings appear to rotate and shift before the viewer’s eyes, like the image within a kaleidoscope, absorbing the viewer into the heart of the work, before shifting the gaze back out to the brilliant blue edges of the canvas. The image bursts with a fizzling energy—indeed, the piercing cobalt blue and electric yellow elements of the butterfly wings evoke the gradients of a flame, transitioning from blue to yellow to red as it combusts.

In the early 2000s, a decade after his seminal In and Out of Love show in 1991, Hirst found inspiration for his Kaleidoscope paintings in a Victorian tea tray that was decorated with a detailed pattern of butterfly wings. The work evokes a Victorian preoccupation with nature and science, and recalls the Victorian past time of butterfly collecting, a popular hobby that led many to display their captured species in their homes, presenting them in display cabinets or drawers, pinned in rows in a manner not dissimilar to Hirst’s butterfly art. Throughout Hirst’s oeuvre, the artist continues to interrogate the themes of life and death. Indeed, the artist has stated: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else…there isn’t anything else” (the artist quoted in Amie Corry, “Light in the Darkness” in Damien Hirst and Jason Beard (eds.), Damien Hirst: The Complete Psalm Paintings, London, 2014, n.p.). Discussing Hirst’s exploration of mortality in his Kaleidoscope works such as Omniscience, Amie Corry argues: “By detaching the wings from the insects’ bodies, there is a sense in which Hirst seems to abandon the sometimes meaningless realities of life, in favour of the certainty of death” (Amie Corry, “Light in the Darkness” in Damien Hirst and Jason Beard (eds.), Damien Hirst: The Complete Psalm Paintings, London, 2014, n.p.).

Writing about this work on his Instagram account, Hirst stated: “This is ‘Omniscience’. A lot of my butterfly kaleidoscope paintings are named after religious ideas because they always look and feel religious to me. There’s also something spiritual about repetition” (29 May 2018). Indeed, the repetition of Hirst’s work and its astonishing ability to absorb the viewer in its imagery recalls the work of Yayoi Kusama and her signature nets composed of hundreds of repetitive gestures. However, the precision in which the butterflies have been placed into the household gloss paint and the almost exact symmetry within the image appears almost machine manufactured, opposing the biological, natural essence of the painting—the wings of dead butterflies. Nevertheless, there is a distinct religious quality embedded in the work, perhaps due to its repetition as commented upon by Hirst, or perhaps due to each butterfly’s representation of a soul. Hirst often gives his Kaleidoscope paintings titles with religious meanings or connotations, such as Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven and The Kingdom of the Father, both executed in 2007. Here, Omniscience refers to the state of knowing everything, and is therefore suggestive of a higher, all-knowing presence. The vivid chromaticity and luminosity of the work also recalls the brilliance of stained glass windows particularly in Gothic churches, further reinforcing the religious reading of Omniscience, in which Hirst creates a similar portal for the viewer to commune with another dimension or higher power. Overall, Omniscience is an outstanding butterfly work by Damien Hirst that is not only aesthetically stunning, but powerfully explores the relationship between art, life, beauty and death, key themes that define Hirst’s artistic practice.

Gospel, 2004

Sotheby’s London: 3 March 2022
Estimated: GBP 220,000 – 280,000
GBP 403,200 / USD 537,098

Gospel | Modern & Contemporary Day Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Gospel, 2004
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
48×48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm)

Embodying Damien Hirst’s ongoing dialogue with the theme of mortality, Gospel is a mesmerizing example of the artist’s Butterfly Grid Paintings. Arranged here in an intricate mosaic on the surface of deep black gloss paint, the butterfly wings coalesce into a kaleidoscopic composition which appears to shift and revolve before the viewer’s eyes. The Butterfly Grid Paintings serve as a meditation on the intersection between life and death, exploring how contemporary society’s two dominant belief structures – religion and science – might negotiate this crucial juncture. While the butterflies on the surface of Gospel remain dead and utterly inert, their wings retain their intrinsic aesthetic allure, remaining intact for eternity.

Hirst began the Butterfly Grid Paintings in 2001, their collaged compositions initially inspired by a Victorian tea tray the artist found earlier that year. The paintings investigate the Victorian fascination with the natural world and their reverence for the spectacle of nature and the unpredictability of scientific specimen. Inspired by Victorian naturalists who bred and organised butterflies by category for scientific understanding, Hirst began to arrange the insects by colour into a vivid mosaic-like surface. Some of Hirst’s most iconic paintings, sculptures and installations have employed the live or decaying bodies of butterflies, using the symbolism of the insect to magnificent effect. In and Out of Love, an early, seminal work from 1991, consisted of an entire room of live butterflies floating freely amongst pots of flowers and sugar. The elegance of the live butterflies was juxtaposed against the dormant bodies of dead butterflies, which were affixed to monochrome canvases as though accidentally caught in the sticky surface of the gloss paint. In the same room, Hirst applied a number of unhatched pupae to monochrome white canvases and over time butterflies emerged from the chrysalises. The subsequent hatching and metamorphosis effectively served as a miniature illustration of the complete cycle of life and death: a theme of endless fascination for Hirst. In and Out of Love was to become the first occasion on which Hirst exploited the natural beauty of the butterfly in his ruminations on mortality, and the Butterfly Grid Paintings build upon the artist’s earlier existential introspection. Hirst himself maintains, “I’ve got an obsession with death… But I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid” (Damien Hirst cited in: Gordon Burn and Damien Hirst, Eds.,On the Way to Work, London 2011, p. 21). Compelling viewers to confront the immediacy of death, Gospel is imbued with conflicting sentiments of anguish and celebration, tragedy and splendor.

While Hirst’s Butterfly Grid Paintings recall a Victorian obsession with nature and science, they also evoke religious iconography, imagery undoubtedly derived from Hirst’s own Catholic upbringing. The symmetrical quality of Gospel is reminiscent of the intricate stained glass in Europe’s great cathedrals, whilst the birth of a butterfly from its cocoon presents a lasting symbol of Christ’s resurrection. As an emblem of religion, death and rebirth, the butterfly has become one of Hirst’s most enduring motifs, one that encourages his viewers to consider the extraordinary – yet fragile – beauty of the natural world. As art critic and writer Michael Bracewell vividly summarises, “The viewer is confronted in each work by the physical representation, or its meticulously honed depiction, of those beliefs, ideas, conditions and institutions which shape the common basis of human experience. Morality, faith, medicine, religion, wealth and aesthetics comprise the principal themes and subject matter of Hirst’s paintings, sculptures and installations. The ceaseless interplay of these fundamental concerns, and their intrinsic relationship to the individual and society, are brought to life in works of the exquisite aphoristic refinement as well as graphic violence and sheer spectacle” (Michael Bracewell cited in: Damien Hirst, Requiem I, 2009, online).

Sinful, 2007

Sotheby’s London: 13 April 2021
Estimated: GBP 250,000 – 350,000
GBP 315,000 / USD 432,811

Sinful | Contemporary Curated | 2021 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Sinful, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
96×48 inches (243.8 x 121.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2007 on the reverse

Embodying Damien Hirst’s ongoing dialogue with the theme of mortality, Sinful is a mesmerizing example of the artist’s Butterfly Grid Paintings. In tones of turquoise, ultramarine, and yellow, the present work is comprised of hundreds of individual butterfly wings, each with a distinct pattern and hue. Arranged here in an intricate mosaic on the surface of gloss paint, the butterfly wings coalesce into a kaleidoscopic composition which appears to shift and revolve before the viewer’s eyes. The Butterfly Grid Paintings serve as a meditation on the intersection between life and death, exploring how contemporary society’s two dominant belief structures – religion and science – might negotiate this crucial juncture. While the butterflies on the surface of Sinful remain dead and utterly inert, their wings retain their intrinsic aesthetic allure, remaining intact for eternity.

Compelling viewers to confront the immediacy of death, Sinful is imbued with conflicting sentiments of anguish and celebration, tragedy and splendor. While Hirst’s Butterfly Grid Paintings recall a Victorian obsession with nature and science, they also evoke religious iconography, imagery undoubtedly derived from Hirst’s own Catholic upbringing. The symmetrical quality of Sinful is reminiscent of the intricate stained glass in Europe’s great cathedrals, whilst the birth of a butterfly from its cocoon presents a lasting symbol of Christ’s resurrection. As an emblem of religion, death and rebirth, the butterfly has become one of Hirst’s most enduring motifs, one that encourages his viewers to consider the extraordinary – yet fragile – beauty of the natural world.

The Human Voice, 2006

Sotheby’s London: 25 March 2021
Estimated: GBP 600,000 – 800,000
GBP 620,000 / USD 850,596

The Human Voice | 《人聲》 | Modern Renaissance: A Cross-Category Sale | 2021 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
The Human Voice, 2006
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 84 inches (213.3 cm)
Titled and dedicated For Jimmy I Love You! on the reverse
Signed, titled and dated 2006 on the stretcher

Embodying Damien Hirst’s ongoing dialogue with the theme of mortality, The Human Voice is a mesmerizing example of the artist’s Butterfly Grid Paintings. In tones of crimson, sapphire, amber and tangerine, the present work is comprised of hundreds of individual butterfly wings, each with a distinct pattern and hue. Arranged here in an intricate mosaic on the surface of red gloss paint, the butterfly wings coalesce into a kaleidoscopic composition which appears to shift and revolve before the viewer’s eyes. The Butterfly Grid Paintings serve as a meditation on the intersection between life and death, exploring how contemporary society’s two dominant belief structures – religion and science – might negotiate this crucial juncture. While the butterflies on the surface of The Human Voice remain dead and utterly inert, their wings retain their intrinsic aesthetic allure, remaining intact for eternity. Having been installed on the walls of the prestigious The Belvedere Restaurant since its acquisition, The Human Voice is a captivating and striking example from this exquisite series of paintings.

Hirst began the Butterfly Grid Paintings in 2001, their collaged compositions initially inspired by a Victorian tea tray the artist found earlier that year. The paintings investigate the Victorian fascination with the natural world and their reverence for the spectacle of nature and the unpredictability of scientific specimen. Inspired by Victorian naturalists who bred and organised butterflies by category for scientific understanding, Hirst began to arrange the insects by colour into a vivid mosaic-like surface. Some of Hirst’s most iconic paintings, sculptures and installations have employed the live or decaying bodies of butterflies, using the symbolism of the insect to magnificent effect. In and Out of Love, an early, seminal work from 1991, consisted of an entire room of live butterflies floating freely amongst pots of flowers and sugar. The elegance of the live butterflies was juxtaposed against the dormant bodies of dead butterflies, which were affixed to monochrome canvases as though accidentally caught in the sticky surface of the gloss paint. In the same room, Hirst applied a number of unhatched pupae to monochrome white canvases and over time butterflies emerged from the chrysalises. The subsequent hatching and metamorphosis effectively served as a miniature illustration of the complete cycle of life and death: a theme of endless fascination for Hirst. In and Out of Love was to become the first occasion on which Hirst exploited the natural beauty of the butterfly in his ruminations on mortality, and the Butterfly Grid Paintings build upon the artist’s earlier existential introspection. Compelling viewers to confront the immediacy of death, The Human Voice is imbued with conflicting sentiments of anguish and celebration, tragedy and splendor.

The Tree of Life, 2007

Phillips London: 16 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
WITHDRAWN

Damien Hirst Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

“I love butterflies because when they are dead, they look alive.”

Hirst’s use of butterflies in The Tree of Life serves as a thoughtful yet disquieting instrument for examining the subject of transformation. This device marks a sophisticated engagement with religious art historical traditions, in line with the artist’s evocation of Gothic cathedral windows. In Christian iconography, the butterfly serves as a symbol of Christ’s second coming, their life cycle – from caterpillar to chrysalis, then butterfly – being perceived to parallel the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. In Albrecht Dürer’s engraving, The Holy Family with the Butterfly, for example, the artist depicts the Virgin Mary, Christ Child and Joseph with a small butterfly in the lower right corner, subtly but potently foreshadowing Christ’s resurrection.

Left: Albrecht Dürer, The Holy Family with the Butterfly, c. 1495-1496, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.3453
Right: 17th-century depiction of the tree of life in Palace of Shaki Khans, Azerbaijan

Hirst escalates the symbolic use of butterflies in The Tree of Life by incorporating actual specimens, rather than mere representations. Beyond theological associations, butterflies are perceived to signify change, while their aerial grace and chromatic brilliance suggest liberation and joy. In Tree of Life, Hirst radically disrupts these connotations. Entombed beneath household gloss, though the butterflies retain their striking coloration, their capacity to purely provide aesthetic delight is forfeited. By preventing the butterflies from decaying, Hirst entirely disrupts the natural order. This effect is amplified by the extreme precision with which the butterflies are arranged, contradicting their uncontainable nature when alive. Through these subversive techniques, Hirst emphasizes the unavoidability of transience in human experience.

“There’s a hole there in people. In everybody. In me. A hole that needs filling, and religion fills it for some people. And art for others. I don’t think religion is the answer, but it helps. I use art in a similar way to fill that hole.”

A potent, pre-Christian motif connecting Norse myth, ancient Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Persian symbology, Hinduism, Chinese mythology, and Judeo-Christian cosmologies, the ‘Tree of Life’ is a fundamental and unifying cultural construct, connecting seemingly disparate cultures and religious practices across time and space. Whether pictured as the source of all knowledge or creation, as a bridge connecting underworld and celestial heavens, or as part of a quest for immortality it remains a powerful and resonant symbol that reminds us of our shared historical roots, and the universal power of myth in expressing and exploring deeper human aspirations and anxieties. The remarkable quality of Hirst’s The Tree of Life lies in its ability to simultaneously showcase an exquisite composition, while drawing deeply from art historical traditions and employing radical techniques, imbuing the work with a profound commentary on the philosophical dimensions of our existence.

Love Affair, 2001

Property from a Prestigious Collection
Sotheby’s London: 4 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 400,000
GBP 320,000 / USD 427,490

Love Affair | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2026 | Sotheby’s

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Love Affair, 2001
Household gloss on canvas with butterflies
100-3/8 x 69-3/8 inches (255 x 176.2 cm)
Signed (on a label affixed to the reverse)

Executed in 2001, Love Affair is a commanding and monumental example of Damien Hirst’s butterfly paintings, articulating with clarity the enduring tension between beauty and mortality that lies at the core of his practice. Perhaps his most recognizable and iconic motif, Hirst’s butterflies established the artist as a household name in the enveloping canon of contemporary art. Hypnotic and immersive in equal measure, the present work epitomizes Hirst’s ongoing dialogue with art history, recalling Dosso Dossi, Jupiter and Painter: an allegory of boundless imagination. In a further nod to the Victorian pastime of entomology, the present work teeters between tragic poignancy and exultant splendor. Here, set against a lustrous ground of deep violet gloss and arranged in a rhythmic constellation, the butterflies hover between flight and stasis, embodying the philosophical contradictions that define Hirst’s oeuvre.

“I think I’ve got an obsession with death, but I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid. You can’t have one without the other.”

Hirst’s use of exotic butterflies dates back to his first solo exhibition in 1991, In and out of Love, which took place in an empty shop split over two floors. Downstairs, Hirst presented his first series of monochrome butterfly paintings alongside ashtrays containing cigarette butts; the inherent natural beauty of the butterflies juxtaposed by the chemical toxicity of the cigarettes, symbolically tainting the air we breathe. Upstairs, white paintings covered with pupae of Malaysian butterflies were hung about the room. Butterflies would hatch and flutter around the room, feeding on nectar from potted plants before eventually dying in the very same room wherein they were born. In a captivatingly sensationalist manner, Hirst presented life and death for all to witness and experience in a manner fully encapsulated within Love Affair. Hirst’s butterflies have quickly become a potent symbol for both the beauty and fragility of life.

Jean Dubuffet , Jardin Mouvementé, 1955. Private Collection. Image/Art: © 2026 ADAGP, Paris/DACS, London Jean Dubuffet

Butterflies have long been a source of artistic inspiration and fascination; from the sixteenth century still-life painters, including the likes of Jan Brueghel the Elder, whose fine brush strokes captured the intricate patterns of fluttering wings, to Jean Dubuffet who collaged the iridescent species as found objects on his canvases. As a universal symbol of metamorphosis from chrysalis, the butterfly serves as both subject and material in Love Affair, their brief, radiant existence serving as a profound existential metaphor for the human condition. As the work’s title suggests, for Hirst, the very transience of the butterfly: its intense, ephemeral burst of beauty before inevitable disappearance, mirrors the fleeting, intoxicating nature of a love affair.

Dosso Dossi, Jupiter, Mercury and Virtue, 1524. Wawel Royal Castle National Art Collection, Krakow.

When asked to comment on the connection between love in relation to his butterfly paintings, as epitomized by Love Affair, Hirst responded: “Because it seems too difficult to sustain. Love is realistic; desire unrealistic. It’s easier to blindfold yourself, change your girlfriend every six months and not look in the mirror to live with someone forever and see change. Although I’m tired of the word Love, it’s like ‘God’. Instead of saying ‘I love you,’ I want to say, ‘I’m delighted you’re alive.” (the artist quoted in: Exh. Cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, Damien Hirst: No Sense of Absolute Corruption, 1996, pp. 116-17). The present work, in this sense, offers a profound meditation on desire and loss, articulating the enduring human impulse to hold on to that which is, by its nature, miraculous, though destined to disappear.

I Need You, 1998

Christie’s London: 7 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 220,000 – 280,000
GBP 252,000 / USD 319,536

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), I Need You | Christie’s (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
I Need You, 1998
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
36×40 inches (91.4 x 101.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘I need you. 98. Damien Hirst’ (on the overlap)
Signed ‘D Hirst’ (on the stretcher)

Originally displayed in Damien Hirst’s landmark restaurant Pharmacy, where it formed part of one of the most high-profile art installations of its kind, I Need You is a rare and historic example of the artist’s butterfly paintings. Ten tiny winged creatures are choreographed against an exquisite sky-blue backdrop, suspended in motion before the void. Executed in 1998, at the height of Hirst’s early celebrity, the work is one of just ten butterfly paintings that featured on the upper floor of the artist’s Notting Hill restaurant. There, it took its place alongside examples of his pharmaceutical cabinets, spot paintings and other bespoke pieces, together forming a permanent exhibition that represented his largest solo show to date at the time. Opening in 1998, Pharmacy became an icon of ‘Cool Britannia’, frequented by the likes of David Bowie and Kate Moss. It closed in 2003, and the present work has remained in the same private collection for the past two decades.

Hirst’s butterfly paintings lie at the core of his practice. They evolved from his seminal 1991 exhibition In and Out of Love: his first solo show in London. Held at Woodstock Street Gallery, the exhibition was spread across two floors. On the ground floor, Hirst created an artificial humid environment that he filled with live butterflies. They hatched from pupae attached to white canvases, fed upon sugar water, settled upon plants and flowers and flew freely about the room. In the basement, Hirst mounted eight brightly-coloured monochrome canvases, each with dead butterflies pressed into their glossy surfaces. This portion of the installation, which now resides in the Yale Center for British Art, shares much in common with the suite of paintings subsequently hung at Pharmacy. Each set features a similar rainbow palette of distinctive jewel-toned hues, ranging from orange, red and yellow to pink, green and blue. The present work’s celestial backdrop, evocative of a Tiepolo fresco, is particularly entrancing. The butterfly paintings embody many of Hirst’s central dichotomies: the fragile balance between life and death, the transition from reality to art, the intersection of faith and science and the beauty of mortality. By 1998, his dark, witty confrontation with these themes had propelled him to international fame. His inclusion in Charles Saatchi’s epoch-defining exhibition Sensation at London’s Royal Academy of Arts the previous year followed hot on the heels of the 1995 Turner Prize, which Hirst had won with his ground-breaking formaldehyde tank Mother and Child Divided. Much like the latter, the butterfly paintings preserve their subjects after death. From the chaos and unpredictability of life comes sleek, near-minimalist abstraction, each creature frozen in a radiant monochrome tomb. In Pharmacy, these paintings formed an elegant, contemplative counterpoint to the pill cabinets that populated the ground floor: they were art’s antidote to death, rather than medicine’s. If Christian iconography had often postulated the butterfly as a symbol of resurrection, Hirst too plays God: here, his insects are spared from the abyss, and reborn as art.

Wonderful Week, 2008

Christie’s London: 14 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 327,600 / USD 397,235

Damien Hirst (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Wonderful Week, 2008
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
72×72 inches (182.8 x 182.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘2008 “Wonderful Week” Damien Hirst’ (on the reverse)
Signed ‘Damien Hirst’ (on the stretcher)

Suspended across an immense and glossy sky-blue canvas of almost two by two meters, Damien Hirst’s Wonderful Week (2008) presents a mesmeric kaleidoscope of butterflies. In what is undoubtedly one of his most iconic and widely celebrated series, the iridescent butterflies in Hirst’s Butterfly Paintings are transfixed upon the canvas like inlaid gemstones, their diaphanous wings delicately spread open in a captivating display. Retaining an impossible, immaculate beauty even in death, the insect is a perfect embodiment of the inquiry at the heart of Hirst’s artistic practice, that of life, death, and perishability. Fixed to the canvas in a fluttering array of yellows, whites and blues, the insects appear as though captured in flight amidst a cloudless sky. Conjuring the luminous, pale Venetian blues of Titian’s canvases, Hirst’s Wonderful Week is at first glance entrancingly lyrical. Belying the glossy surface of household paint however, are the potent and disquieting connotations of mortality. As though mimicking the twisted fantasy of the Victorian lepidopterist, piercing the specimens with pins upon a mount, Hirst captures the beauty of the living in an artificially preserved death. Like a contemporary play on the memento mori, a device popularized in oil paintings of the seventeenth century, Hirst confronts his present-day viewer with his elected symbol of mortality. Imbued with its own connotations of Christ’s resurrection, the butterfly, emerging reborn from its chrysalis, is an emblem of metamorphosis, and speaks to life beyond the bounds of the perishable body. Wonderful Week is an impressive example of what Hirst does best. Exploring highly conceptual notions of existence via the physical, tangible matter of the once-living, he sheds light on the strangely beautiful fragility of life.

Love Will Never Die, 1999

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 250,000 – 350,000
GBP 535,500 / USD 676,563

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965) (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Love Will Never Die, 1999
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 84 inches (213.4 cm)

With its tiny iridescent forms splayed against a circular red backdrop, Love Will Never Die (1999) is an arresting early example of Damien Hirst’s butterfly paintings. Both disquieting and mesmerizing, its delicate winged creatures are ensnared within a crimson void, preserved for eternity in a glowing painterly tomb. Within a practice dedicated to exploring themes of life and death, the butterfly paintings stand among Hirst’s most conceptually incisive works. Operating in counterpoint with his fly paintings, as well as the formaldehyde vitrines that had won him the Turner Prize in 1995, they offer visions of hope and beauty in the face of mortality. Here, his butterflies are frozen in time, as radiant and bewitching as when they were alive. Artificially spared from their inevitable decay, they fly in the face of death, sublimated by paint and reborn as art.

Butterflies have always been a central medium for Hirst. Executed in a variety of colors, formats and scales, the paintings evolved from his seminal installation In and Out of Love (1991). Many—including the present—would explicitly riff upon its title.

Trinity I, 2007

Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2023
Estimated: USD 250,000 – 350,000
USD 302,400

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965) (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Trinity I, 2007
Butterflies, household gloss and gold leaf on canvas, in three parts
Each: 54×36 inches (137.2 x 91.4 cm)
Overall: 54×108 inches (137.2 x 274.3 cm)
Signed and titled ‘Damien Hirst “The Trinity”‘ (on the reverse of each canvas)
Signed again and dated ‘Damien Hirst 2007’ (on each stretcher)

The search for beauty within death has been a constant endeavor for Damien Hirst throughout his artistic career. His artworks share with the viewer his exploration of life, death, beauty, religion, and science, and these ideas are well captured by one of his most iconic motifs: the butterfly. Trinity I quintessentially encapsulates these themes through his use of triptych which mirrors religious altarpieces, as well as the butterfly, which represents science and the paradoxical beauty of life and death. The delicacy of the butterflies’ placements and translucent wings is one of the many aspects of Trinity I that makes it so beautiful. Scattered throughout the three primary-colored sectors as if they landed there on their own, embedded in the world of lush color, the butterflies melt into the surface layered with thick gloss. His use of vast colors – red, yellow, and blue – is reminiscent of minimalist Ellsworth Kelly’s 1965 Red Yellow Blue II. It is clear, through the present lot specifically, that Hirst was enthused by the minimalist movement as a whole. Through his use of vibrant and delicate butterfly wings, Hirst challenges viewers to consider the fleeting nature of life, beauty, and the concept of death itself. These works, specifically Trinity I, exemplifies Hirst’s endless imagination, creativity, and ability to create works that make a significant impact on the art world and continue to inspire discussion and debate.

I Love You More Than Words Can Say, 1999

Sotheby’s London: 1 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 500,000
GBP 508,000 / USD 611,385

I Love You More Than Words Can Say | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
I Love You More Than Words Can Say, 1999
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 84 inches (213.4 cm)

Within the frame of its perfectly circular composition, I Love you More Than Words Can Say from 1999 exhibits an array of butterflies of varied shapes, colors, and sizes which pepper its luscious field of glossy green paint. Perhaps one of his most recognizable and iconic motifs, Hirst’s butterflies established the artist as a household name. Setting the luminous butterflied against an expanse of vibrant green, the present work is a contemporary take on the idealized British landscape. Poised within the stillness of death, the radiant butterflies also provoke debate on issues of contemporary existence as the viewer makes subtle links between the transient fragility of life and the simultaneous imminence of death. The central contradiction of Hirst’s oeuvre is nowhere better exemplified than in his celebrated Butterfly Paintings.

An emblem of religion, death and rebirth, the butterfly has become one of Hirst’s most enduring motifs, one that encourages his viewers to consider the extraordinary — yet fragile — beauty of the natural world. As art critic and writer Michael Bracewell vividly summarizes, “The viewer is confronted in each work by the physical representation, or its meticulously honed depiction, of those beliefs, ideas, conditions and institutions which shape the common basis of human experience. Morality, faith, medicine, religion, wealth and aesthetics comprise the principal themes and subject matter of Hirst’s paintings, sculptures and installations. The ceaseless interplay of these fundamental concerns, and their intrinsic relationship to the individual and society, are brought to life in works of the exquisite aphoristic refinement as well as graphic violence and sheer spectacle” (Michael Bracewell quoted in: Damien Hirst, Requiem I, 2009 (online)). Illustrating the beauty of horror and the horror of beauty, the caterpillar dies in the chrysalis and is reborn a butterfly. Powerfully suggestive, I Love you More Than Words Can Say recalls the ever-revolving cycle of life and death with an image of heavenly beauty.

Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 484,000

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder | The Now Evening Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder, 1998
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 84 inches (213.4 cm)

A sensational beacon of chromatic allure, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder from 1998 sees an array of butterflies in various shapes, colors, and sizes preserved and dispersed across a pool of bright yellow paint. Executed in 1998, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder belongs to Hirst’s celebrated series of Butterfly Paintings, which provokes debate on issues of contemporary existence by confronting us with both the fragility of life and imminence of death through the symbol of the butterfly. An emblem of religion, death and rebirth, the butterfly has become one of Damien Hirst’s most enduring and iconic motifs, visualized here in a memento mori to encourage his viewers to consider the extraordinary — yet fragile — beauty of the natural world. While Hirst later continued to arrange butterflies into grand configurations that mirror stained glass windows, early Butterfly Paintings such as Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder witness his engagement with the Minimalist tradition with his lyrical play on light, color, and space. Previously held in the private collection of advertising executive Jay Chiat, one of the earliest collectors of Damien Hirst’s art in the United States, the present work brilliant exemplifies the central contradictions at the heart of Hirst’s work.

In the present work, the vibrant colors of real butterflies burst from the artificial background with a seductive luminosity that speak of life and joy, even in the face of death. Embodying a symbol of hopeless romance through this contradiction, the butterflies here cling to their existence on the surface of the painting, their fragility and tactility blissfully celebratory yet poignantly sad. Their dispersal across the perfectly circular composition suggests a freedom of movement, invoking an airiness that fundamentally contrasts their lifeless entombment in paint.

Edith, 2008-2009

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 28 April 2022
Estimated: HKD 1,600,000 – 2,400,000
HKD 7,560,000 / USD 963,499

Damien Hirst 達米恩 · 赫斯特 | Edith 伊迪絲 | Contemporary Day Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Edith, 2008-2009
Butterflies, cubic zirconia and household gloss on canvas
55.2 x 55.2 inches (140×140 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2008/09 on the reverse

One of Damien Hirst’s most defining artistic innovations, Edith is an immaculate example of Hirst’s butterfly monochrome painting series. An embodiment of his revolutionary and philosophically rich aesthetic practice, the present work eloquently transmits Hirst’s obsession with the dichotomy of life and death, natural and artificial, the beautiful and the grotesque. A panoply of butterfly species are scattered across a pastel pink, gently perched on the heavy layers of household gloss paint. Dotting the canvas are white cubic gems of different shapes and sizes, sparkling and glistening as light reflects from its translucent mass. Laying beside the cheap cubic gems, the delicate iridescence of the butterfly wings and its natural fragility juxtaposes the sharp light of the industrially cut, mass produced cubic. This invites the viewer to contemplate the lasting beauty of their wings against the transience of their life, poignantly illuminating the perishability of their existence in their enshrinement within the artificial pink gloss. Presenting a series of dualisms within the pink confines of the canvas, Hirst explores the complex relationship between art and nature, of the organic and artificial.

Love to You, 2007

Sotheby’s London: 26 March 2021
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 252,000 / USD 347,634

Love to You | Contemporary Art Day Auction | 2021 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Love to You, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
Diameter: 54 inches (137.2 cm)
Signed and titled on the stretcher

Love to You is an elegant example of one of Damien Hirst’s celebrated Butterfly Paintings. Deliberating on love, life, death and art, Hirst’s spectacular butterfly works have advanced the grand, epistemological and existential investigations that are at the core of his artistic endeavour. The momentous exhibition In and Out of Love in 1991 saw Hirst transform a multi-storey London gallery into a butterfly sanctuary, marking his first use of the insects – Love To You is a highly refined, exquisite work that is deeply evocative of the fragility and brevity of life. Themes of life and death permeate the extensive practice of Hirst, who is without question one of the most prominent and acclaimed contemporary practitioners of the postmodern period. Such a focus on fundamentally philosophical questions has garnered Hirst a comprehensive appreciation, posing myriad challenges to the tenets of artistic production by consistently breaking down the dividing line between ‘real life’ and contemporary art.

Combining an intense, stylish theatricality with art historical cues and contemporary materials and procedures, Hirst has achieved a unique synthesis of iconographical representations and scientific specimens. Suspending the art object between narrative and analysis, therefore, Hirst’s paintings and sculptures bear their closeness to life, encased as they are in art. Wings spread, as if mid-flight, there is a delicate majesty to the creatures of Love To You that are painted into the monochrome surface of the canvas, delivering a tranquil reminder of the ephemeral nature of being and existence. Hirst has long since explored this frozen-in-time cycle of life, most notably in his 1990 work A Thousand Years, in which fly larvae, born inside a vitrine and nourished by the decapitated head of a cow, were systematically killed by an ‘Insect-O-Cutor’ inside the installation; a microcosm of the passage from birth to death. In the present work, this relentless rhythm is affixed at its end, the painting acting as a magnificent tomb for the fleeting insects. Whereas Hirst’s sharks and cattle monumentalize the drama of death by their sheer scale, the butterfly paintings embrace a subtler effect, calling to mind the historical-spiritual intimations of butterflies that appear in the still life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age by the likes of Ambrosius Bosschaert, often as symbols of passing beauty and the resurrection of Christ. In Love To You, Hirst preserves the delicate frames of the butterflies’ wings, casting their perpetual flight from life to death and beyond in a painterly reflection on existence. Bringing into play art, religion and science, Hirst’s Butterfly Paintings represent a sympathetic and elegant contemplation on existentialist themes, and the present work – with specimens of turquoise and orange composed over a pristine white ground – is an exemplary work from one of the most long standing and iconic series by the artist.

Other Butterfly Paintings

DAMIEN HIRST
Midas Asteroid, 2007
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
72 x 47 7/8 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘”Midas Asteroid” 2007 2007 Damien Hirst’ on the reverse; signed ‘DHirst’ on the stretcher

Beautiful Squawk Painting (with Butterflies), 2007

Christie’s London: 9 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 120,000 – 180,000
GBP 277,200 / USD 351,490

Damien Hirst (christies.com)

DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Beautiful Squawk Painting (with Butterflies), 2007
Household gloss and butterflies on canvas
36×36 inches (91×91 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Damien Hirst “Beautiful Squawk Painting” 2007’ (on the reverse)

With its evocative, radial burst of color, Damien Hirst’s Beautiful Squawk Painting (with Butterflies) (2007) pulses with joyful energy. Out of a vortex of red burst waves of turquoise, yellow, navy, and momentous streaks of sky blue. Hirst poured household paints onto a rotating canvas to achieve these kaleidoscopic patterns, and they present a striking index of spontaneous gesture in bright, dazzling color. Atop the medley of frenetic movement flutter delicate butterflies with gossamer wings. As such, the work combines the action painting of the artist’s iconic ‘Spin’ series with the evanescent insects that adorn so many of his canvases. While the vivacious colors teem with life, the artist’s use of butterflies also ties the painting to Hirst’s career-long inquiry into themes of mortality. At once a meditation on chaos and order, chance and predestiny, Beautiful Squawk Painting (with Butterflies) reveals the ways in which external forces always shape reality. Control and its loss fascinate Hirst, and in the present work—as in all the spin paintings—the artist effectively absents his hand from the final composition; the speed of the machine and the color of the paint are the only two elements that determine the final image. In a world where so much is chance and haphazard, the spin paintings celebrate the possibilities that fate has in store for us all: a theme foregrounded by the present work’s addition of Hirst’s butterflies, which become a gleaming memento mori.

Briareus, 2012

Phillips London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 457,200 / USD 545,845

Damien Hirst – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 18 March 2023 | Phillips