Damien Hirst has one of the most structured, prolific, and deliberately strategic print practices of any contemporary artist. From the outset, prints were never conceived as secondary objects in his work, but as a parallel system: one that mirrors his core ideas while allowing for scale, repetition, and wide circulation. Hirst’s print production is built around a small number of clearly identifiable visual languages: spots, butterflies, spins, cherry blossoms, skulls, and pharmaceutical imagery. Each operates almost like a modular unit. The image remains stable, while variations in color, scale, technique, and edition size create differentiation. This method reflects a conceptual logic at the heart of his practice: repetition as meaning, and variation as value.
Technically, Hirst has embraced a wide range of printmaking processes, screenprints, etchings, lithographs, foil-block prints, and mixed techniques, often pushing traditional methods toward industrial precision or decorative excess. Many editions are large, sometimes very large, which reinforces the idea of abundance rather than rarity. Scarcity is not eliminated, but carefully engineered through colorways, paper choices, hand-finishing, and sub-editions. Crucially, Hirst’s prints are not merely reproductions of existing works. In many cases, the print is the primary medium, conceived specifically for editioned production. This blurs the usual hierarchy between “original” and “multiple,” aligning perfectly with his long-standing interest in branding, systems, and the mechanics of desire.
WORK IN PROGRESS
The Virtues, 2021
The Virtues
The complete set of 8 laminated giclée prints
Medium: Laminated giclée print in colors on aluminum composite panel
Year: 2021
Sheet: 120×96 cm (47 1/4 x 37 3/4 inches)
Editions:
Justice (H9-1): 1,005
Courage (H9-2): 760
Mercy (H9-3): 917
Politeness (H9-4): 1,549
Honesty (H9-5): 728
Honor (H9-6): 693
Loyalty (H9-7): 1,067
Control (H9-8): 862
Publisher: HENI Editions, London
The Virtues | HENI Editions
Signed in pencil and numbered on labels affixed to the reverse
During his time spent in the isolation of his studio during the COVID-19 lockdown, Damien Hirst worked on the Cherry Blossom paintings, responding to a dreary moment by creating paintings imbued with radiant positivity. Paintings from Cherry Blossom series were prominently exhibited at Paris’s Fondation Cartier in 2021 and travelled to Tokyo’s National Art Center in 2022, Hirst’s first major solo exhibitions in both France and Japan respectively.
Offering a playful tribute to the lineages of Impressionism, Pointillism, and Action Painting, this series of works explodes in its combination of thickly encrusted impasto brushwork and the dynamism of gestural painting to mark Hirst’s triumphant return to the traditional medium after having worked in sculpture for the past decade.
“I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer… I love color. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz.”
A series of 107 canvases of various sizes, Cherry Blossoms is derived from the artist’s investigations into the relationships between abstraction and figuration. Returning to the ideas and aesthetics of the 19th century Pointillist painters Georges Seurat and Pierre Bonnard, the paintings are built up of “flashes” of a vast array of colors that work together to create a depth and vivacity to the visually predominant pinks and whites of the blossom trees. Working with the vast scale of the series, Hirst would fill his studio with canvases and work on a number of them simultaneously. In this way, image creation became symbiotic with the immersive viewing experience of them. Hirst works effectively beyond the limits of the visual field offered by one canvas just as the viewer is completely overwhelmed in front of the huge paintings.
“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 renders the motif of the cherry blossom as a continuation of his artistic exploration of the tensions between life and death; like the butterfly, an insect that Hirst returns to throughout his work to signify themes of life, death, and resurrection through its metamorphic life cycle, the cherry blossom is here a universal symbol of ephemerality and change. Though the blossom only appears briefly to herald the arrival of spring, Hirst suspends it here in a scintillating vision that wavers between figuration and abstraction.
In 2021, Damien unveiled The Virtues (H9) after his Cherry Blossoms (2018-20) paintings. The monumental canvases have been translated here into a vivid series of eight laminated Giclée prints on aluminum composite panels which captures the ephemeral, colorful blooms on sprawling tree branches. Titles are inspired by Bushidō, the Japanese samurai code of ethics. In 1900, Nitobe Inazō published a book entitled Bushidō: The Soul of Japan, aiming to explain the practice of Bushidō to Western audiences. According to Nitobe, Bushidō literally translates to “Military-Knight-Ways” and it outlines the expected conduct of Japanese nobles in their daily lives. The Eight Virtues of Bushidō are Justice, Courage, Mercy, Politeness, Honesty, Honour, Loyalty, and Control. Together, they comprise a code of behavior, which has influenced customs like the tea ceremony and fostered attitudes such as tranquility in the face of danger. Hirst’s series, which uses painterly dots to depict cherry blossoms, is made up of eight parts that are individually titled to align with the eight virtues. Whilst laden with art historical reference, from Van Gogh to Abstract Expressionism, Hirst’s Virtues fundamentally maintains the serenity of Japanese cherry blossoms and the sincerity of Bushidō.
Left: Front cover of Bushido: The Soul of Japan (Philadelphia: Leeds & Biddle, 1900) by Inazō Nitobe (1862-1933). English language version. Image: Hearn 92.40.10, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Right: Attributed to Katsushika Hokusai, Cherry Blossoms, Edo period, Harvard Art Museums, Massachusetts. Image: © President and Fellows of Harvard College
‘The Virtues’ further plays with the idea of the possibilities and limits of human perception. The images, derived from the painted ‘Cherry Blossoms’ canvases, show recognizable sections of the trees only seen partially as if through a window or from inside the tree itself. The focus is less on trees as a subject matter and more on the sheer beauty of the small moments of color that make them.
“These prints are about the momentary, the insane transience of beauty – a tree in full crazy blossom against a clear blue sky. How can you argue with that?”
Published by HENI, London, in 2021, Damien Hirst’s The Virtues were available to purchase for a limited time and the edition size of each individual artwork was determined by the demand during that window. This was the first time that HENI adopted this innovative way of releasing an edition and, following its success, it has become a popular approach to dropping new artworks. In ‘The Virtues’ Hirst once more harnesses the possibilities of printmaking to experiment with technology, making his work available to new audiences along the way. Not only was its edition size open to public demand during a one-week application period, ‘The Virtues’ was the first print series for which both HENI Leviathan and Damien Hirst accepted payment in cryptocurrency. Reproduced in extraordinarily high resolution, in ‘The Virtues’ Hirst shrinks his monumental canvases into accessible prints, retaining the tactility of their captivatingly thick impasto and the vibrancy of their colors.
1. Justice (H9-1)
Edition: 1,005
2. Courage (H9-2)
Edition: 760
3. Mercy (H9-3)
Edition: 917
4. Politeness (H9-4)
Edition: 1,549
5. Honesty (H9-5)
Edition: 728
6. Honour (H9-6)
Edition: 693
7. Loyalty (H9-7)
Edition: 1,067
8. Control (H9-8)
Edition: 862
Complete Sets
Bonhams London: 25 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 63,900 / USD 87,000
Bonhams : Damien Hirst (British, born 1965) The Virtues
DAMIEN HIRST (British, born 1965)
The Virtues (H-9), 2021
The complete set of eight laminated giclée prints on aluminum composite panels
Each signed in pencil on the publisher’s label affixed verso
Each stamp-numbered 262 from various edition sizes
Phillips London: 5 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 82,550 / USD 111,865
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colours flush-mounted to aluminum
With metal strainers on the reverse (as issued)
All signed in pencil and numbered 158 (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 800,000
HKD 635,000 / USD 81,665
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors
Flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers on the reverse (as issued)
All signed in pencil and numbered 106 (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes
Phillips London: 24 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 76,200 / USD 98,990
Damien Hirst Damien Hirst: Online Auction
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors
Flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers on the reverse (as issued)
All signed in pencil and numbered 174 (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes
Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 76,200 / USD 101,150
Damien Hirst Evening & Day Editions
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors
Flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers on the reverse (as issued)
All signed in pencil and numbered 128 (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes
Phillips New-York: 15 February 2024
Estimated: USD 80,000 – 120,000
USD 152,400
DAMIEN HIRST
The Virtues (H. 9), 2021
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors, flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers
All signed in pencil and variously numbered (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
Sotheby’s London: 26 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 101,600
DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
The Virtues (H9), 2021
The complete set comprising eight laminated giclée prints on aluminum composite panels
Each contained in the original packaging
Each signed in pencil on a label affixed to the reverse and numbered 148
This set is number 148 from various edition sizes, published by Heni Editions, London
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 82,550
DAMIEN HIRST
The Virtues (H. 9), 2021
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers on the reverse (as issued)
All signed in pencil and numbered ‘390’ (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes, published by HENI Editions, London
Phillips London: 8 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 88,900
DAMIEN HIRST
The Virtues (H. 9), 2021
The complete series of eight laminated giclée prints in colors, flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainers on the reverse
All signed in pencil and numbered ‘255’ (printed) on the labels affixed to the reverse
From the editions of varying sizes, published by HENI Editions, London
1. Justice (H9-1)
Justice (928/1,005)
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 27 November 2025
Estimated: HKD 60,000 – 90,000
HKD 88,900 / USD 11,430
Justice (730/1,005)
Bonhams London: 20 November 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 8,960 / USD 11,700
Justice (409/1,005)
Christie’s London: 1 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,710 / USD 14,325
Justice (457/1,005)
Sotheby’s London: 2 August 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 9,600 / USD 12,215
Justice (825/1,005)
Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 16,380
Justice (436/1,005)
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 12,700
2. Courage (H9-2)
Courage (XXX/760)
SBI Art Auction Tokyo: 23 May 2025
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,400,000
JPY 1,495,000 / USD 10,485
Courage (538/760)
Sotheby’s London: 25 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,200 / USD 13,695
Courage (297/760)
Christie’s London: 26 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 18,900
Courage (297/760)
Christie’s London: 28 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 9,450
3. Mercy (H9-3)
Mercy (235/817)
Phillips London: 5 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 17,780 / USD 24,095
4. Politeness (H9-4)
Politeness (945/1,549)
Bonhams London: 24 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 12,800 / USD 17,300
Politeness (768/1,549)
Phillips New-York: 24 June 2025
Estimated: USD 7,000 – 10,000
USD 12,700
Honesty (235/1,549)
Phillips London: 5 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 17,780 / USD 24,095
Politeness (XXX/1,549)
SBI Art Auction Tokyo: 23 May 2025
Estimated: JPY 800,000 – 1,400,000
JPY 1,150,000 / USD 8,000
Politeness (1,426/1,549)
Phillips Hong-Kong: 28 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 70,000 – 90,000
HKD 76,200 / USD 9,800
Politeness (691/1,549)
Sotheby’s London: 24 January 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 8,400 / USD 10,375
Politeness (945/1,549)
Bonhams London: 23 January 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 16,510 / USD 20,395
Politeness (277/1,549)
Sotheby’s London: 25 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,200 / USD 13,695
Politeness (243/1,549)
Christie’s London: 26 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 17,640
Politeness (1,368/1,549)
LA Modern: 10 January 2024
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 16,380
Politeness (1,476/1,549)
Phillips Hong-Kong: 7 December 2023
Estimated: HKD 80,000 – 120,000
HKD 95,250 / USD 12,265
Politeness (1,251/1,549)
Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 18,900
Politeness (581/1,549)
Christie’s London: 28 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 13,860
Politeness (1,195/1,549)
Sotheby’s London: 26 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 13,970
Politeness (1,018/1,549)
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 13,970
5. Honesty (H9-5)
Honesty (688/728)
Bonhams London: 9 December 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 7,680 / USD 10,235
Honesty (550/728)
Bonhams London: 24 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 12,160 / USD 16,435
Honesty (236/728)
Phillips London: 18 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 12,900 / USD 17,485
Honesty (626/728)
Koller Zurich: 26 June 2025
Estimated: CHF 6,000 – 9,000
CHF 12,500 / USD 15,550
Honesty (517/728)
Phillips New-York: 24 June 2025
Estimated: USD 7,000 – 10,000
USD 12,700
Honesty (235/728)
Phillips London: 5 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 17,145 / USD 23,235
Honesty (116/728)
Bonhams London: 26 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 20,480 / USD 27,265
Honesty (250/728)
Christie’s London: 28 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,710
6. Honour (H9-6)
Honour (687/693)
Phillips London: 24 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 14,190 / USD 18,910
Honour (235/693)
Phillips London: 18 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 12,900 / USD 17,485
Honour (458/693)
Phillips New-York: 24 June 2025
Estimated: USD 7,000 – 10,000
USD 16,510
Honour (578/693)
Phillips Hong-Kong: 12 December 2024
Estimated: HKD 70,000 – 90,000
HKD 82,550 / USD 10,615
Honour (476/693)
Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 13,970 / USD 18,545
7. Loyalty (H9-7)
Loyalty (116/1,067)
Bonhams London: 20 November 2025
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 8,960 / USD 11,700
Loyalty (235/1,067)
Phillips London: 18 September 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 14,190 / USD 19,235
Loyalty (980/1,067)
Heritage Auctions: 27 March 2025
USD 13,125
Loyalty (1,049/1,067)
Bukowskis Stockholm: 11 December 2024
Estimated: SEK 100,000 – 125,000
SEK 106,250 / USD 9,690
8. Control (H9-8)
Control (827/862)
Phillips New-York: 21 October 2025
Estimated: USD 7,000 – 10,000
USD 15,480
Control (235/862)
Phillips London: 13 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 10,160 / USD 13,170
Control (295/862)
Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 15,875 / USD 21,070
Control (272/862)
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 13,970
The Elements, 2020
The Elements
The complete set of 4 laminated giclée prints
Medium: Laminated giclée print in colors on aluminum composite panel
Year: 2020
Sheet: 100×100 cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 inches)
Edition: 60
Artist’s Proofs: 10 AP
Publisher: HENI Editions, London
The Elements | HENI Editions
1. Earth (H6-6)
2. Air (H6-7)
3. Fire (H6-8)
4. Water (H6-9)
“I can’t understand why most people believe in medicine and don’t believe in art, without questioning either… I like the way art works, the way it brightens people’s lives up… but I was having difficulty convincing the people around me that it was worth believing in. And then I noticed that they were believing in medicine in exactly the same way that I wanted them to believe in art.”
Hirst’s interest in the relationship between these elements and scientific study trace back as far as 1992 to his installation Pharmacy. Within the work, Hirst filled four glass bottles each with a different colored liquid to represent earth, air, fire and water. In so doing, Hirst reached back in time to the beliefs of early medicine in the power of the elements and brought those beliefs into the present day to question our contemporary view of sickness and health, of life and death.
In The Elements, Hirst explores the early theory through an almost scientific study of butterfly wings, capturing their every detail and communicating their fragility. For him, butterflies are laden with meaning, extending across time and geography to encompass the ideas such as the soul, the possibility of resurrection, the afterlife and perhaps most pertinently for Hirst, the very notions of life and death themselves, celebrating the potential beauty of each state.
Complete Sets
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 78,420 / USD 95,255
The complete set of four laminated giclée prints on aluminum panels
Each signed in pencil on the publisher’s label affixed verso
Three stamp-numbered 10/60 (H6-6; H6-7; H6-9)
One stamp-numbered 37/60 (H6-8)
Single Prints
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 23,760
Water H6-9 (from the Elements series), 2020
Diasec-mounted giclée print on aluminum composite panel
Signed and numbered to label to verso ‘Damien Hirst 53/60’ with publisher’s stamp
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 21,590 / USD 29,325
Giclée print in colours, flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainer on the reverse
Signed in pencil on the label affixed to the reverse and numbered 35/60 in black ink on the reverse
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 9,000
GBP 9,000 / USD 11,880
DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Earth (H6-6), from The Elements, 2020
Siasec-mounted giclée print on aluminum composite panel
Signed in pencil on label verso and numbered 48/60
Sotheby’s New-York: 16 July 2024
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 31,200
DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Water (H6-9), from The Elements, 2020
Laminated Giclée print on aluminum composite panel
Signed in pencil on a label affixed to the reverse and numbered in felt-tip pen 58/60
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 8,890 / USD 11,365
Giclée print in colors flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainer on the reverse
Signed in pencil on the label affixed to the reverse and numbered 51/60 in black ink on the reverse
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 11,430 / USD 14,475
Giclée print in colours, flush-mounted to aluminum with metal strainer on the reverse
Signed in pencil on the label affixed to the reverse and numbered 55/60 in black ink on the reverse
Love Poems, 2014
Love Poems
The complete set of six photogravure etchings
Medium: Photo-gravure etchings with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches paper
Year: 2014
Image: 60.6 x 60.6 cm (23 7/8 x 23 7/8 inches)
Sheet: 78×76 cm (30 3/4 x 29 7/8 inches)
Edition: 55
Artist’s Proofs: 15 AP
Publisher: The Paragon Press, London
Love Poems by Damien Hirst – Paragon (paragonpress.co.uk)
Signed in pencil on the front and numbered in pencil on the reverse
Including Longing; To A Stranger; A Dream; Lullaby; She Walks In Beauty; and Sweet Disorder.
Love Poems is a portfolio of 6 prints, characterized by hyperrealist butterflies scattered across saturated color blocked backgrounds. Each print is a perfect square and shows an array of beautifully rendered butterflies randomly placed across the print.
“I love butterflies because when they are dead they look alive…
They represent the soul.”
Do not be fooled, despite the vivid, bubblegum tones of pink, yellow, blue, and green, Love Poems embodies Damien Hirst’s perpetual engagement with the universal and inevitable conclusion of human experience: death. Butterflies first emerged in the artist’s practice in 1991 when he graduated from Goldsmiths and, after being unable to secure a gallery, held his first solo exhibition in a vacant travel agent on Woodstock Street in London. Titled In and Out of Love, the exhibition was arranged across two floors. The ground floor comprised a humid, greenhouse-like environment with five white canvases on the walls to which butterfly pupae were attached. Here, amongst flowering plants and bowls of sugar, the newly born butterflies fluttered around the room, embodying beauty and the vitality of life. Nonetheless, in the basement below, eight glossy, vibrant canvases lined the walls with the limp carcasses of dead butterflies pressed into their surfaces. Here, as in countless artworks since, Hirst harnessed the butterflies’ mesmerizing beauty and brief lifespan to foreground the transience of life and the universal presence of death.
Ernst Fröhlich, Butterflies, 1843 – c. 1880, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-P-OB-201.436
Around a decade after In and Out of Love, Hirst encountered a Victorian tray adorned with butterfly wings, which sparked the inspiration for his Kaleidoscope paintings, in which he arranged real butterflies in entrancing kaleidoscopic patterns. These works, reminiscent of mandalas or gothic stained-glass windows, engage with the Victorian fascination of lepidopterology and its predecessor, the sixteenth-century Wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosity.” In creating these pieces, Hirst repurposed butterfly specimens from Victorian displays, arranging them in disciplined systems of color and symmetry that echo his conceptual approach to the Spot paintings. The connection to lepidopterology remains present in Love Poems, however this process is distilled to its purest form: the butterflies are less concerned with optical theory and more with the interplay between vibrant life and inevitable death, reminding us that beauty is fleeting, yet in its transience, it becomes even more profound.
“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.”
Through the butterfly, Hirst reflects on universal conditions that bind our present alongside the past. As Hirst explained, the 1991 installation was “about love and realism […] life and death” and the dichotomy of “butterflies still being beautiful even when dead”. Much like the vicissitudes of life and love, butterflies symbolically and metaphysically embody the cruel paradoxes of human existence, combining immortal beauty and the frailty of physical reality through their fragile gossamer wings. The butterflies, with their jewel-like luminosity and iridescence, offer a hopeful counterpoint to Hirst’s bleaker artistic engagements with themes of life and death, such as his infamous 1990 work A Thousand Years, which utilized a severed cow’s head and maggots. In Love Poems, the butterflies’ beauty is central to Hirst’s exploration of death; as Hirst himself noted, “You can’t have one without the other”. For Hirst, the obsession with death is ultimately a celebration of life, inseparable from its counterpart, reminding us that life’s beauty is sharpened by its impermanence.
1. Longing
2. To A Stranger
3. A Dream
4. Lullaby
5. She Walks in Beauty
6. Sweet Disorder
Complete Sets
Phillips London: 25 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 101,600 / USD 131,990
Damien Hirst Damien Hirst: Online Auction
DAMIEN HIRST
Love Poems, 2014
The complete set of six photo-gravure etchings with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches paper
All signed in pencil on the front and numbered 7/55 in pencil on the reverse
Phillips London: 18 January 2024
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 78,740 / USD 99,820
Damien Hirst Evening & Day Editions
DAMIEN HIRST
Love Poems, 2014
The complete set of six photo-gravure etchings with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches paper
All signed in pencil on the front and numbered 28/55 in pencil on the reverse
Sotheby’s New-York: 21 October 2021
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 94,500
DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Love Poems, 2013-14
The complete set of six photogravure etchings with lithographic overlay printed in colors on 400gsm Vellin Arches wove paper
Each signed in pencil and numbered 6/55 on the verso
Single Prints
Bonhams Los Angeles: 1 October 2024
Estimated: USD 8,000 – 12,000
USD 10,880
DAMIEN HIRST (born 1965)
Longing, from Love Poems, 2014
Photogravure etching with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches paper
Signed in pencil recto and numbered 22/55 verso
Christie’s London: 26 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 11,340 / USD 14,330
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
To A Stranger, from: Love Poems, 2014
Photogravure etching with lithographic overlay in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 47/55 on the reverse
Christie’s London: 28 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,080 / USD 12,230
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Lullaby, from: Love Poems, 2014
Photogravure etching with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches wove paper
Signed in pencil, inscribed AP on the reverse
One of fifteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of 55
Christie’s London: 28 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,080 / USD 12,230
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
She Walks in Beauty, from: Love Poems, 2014
Photogravure etching with lithographic overlay in colors on Arches wove paper
Signed in pencil, inscribed AP on the reverse,
One of fifteen artist’s proofs aside from the edition of 55
Methamphetamine, 2004
Methamphetamine
Medium: Etching and aquatint in colors on Hahnemühle paper
Year: 2004
Image: 177.5 x 86.2 cm (69 7/8 x 33 7/8 inches)
Sheet: 203.5 x 109.8 cm (80 1/8 x 43 1/4 inches)
Edition: 115
Artist’s Proofs: 30 AP
Publisher: The Paragon Press, London
Literature: Paragon pp. 138-139
Signed in pencil on the front
Numbered in pencil on the reverse
The first Spot etchings Hirst made, Methamphetamine and Tetrahydrocannabinol, are impressive for their large scale and the saturated, velvety colors obtained through the aquatint process. Each of the two prints contains 162 spots, each in a different color. Each spot measures two inches in diameter. The printing process was extremely labor-intensive. It took three printers about three hours to ink the copper plate. The inking had to be finished within a time limit of three hours, due to the drying time of the inks. To achieve an even tint, the aquatint was applied by spraying it on to the plate. The size of the plates stretched the use of the printing press to its limits.
“I said before that I wish I’d never said anything about The Pharmaceutical Paintings, and I still wish I hadn’t. They are what they are, perfectly dumb paintings, which feel absolutely right.”
There is an uncanniness underlying the beauty of the color figuration, the eye is longing in vain to find harmony in the image.
“If you look closely at one of these prints a strange thing happens; because of the lack of repeated colors there is no harmony. We are used to picking out chords of the same color and balancing them with different chords of other colors to create meaning. This can’t happen. So in every painting there is a subliminal sense of unease; the colors project so much joy it’s hard to feel it, but it’s there. The horror underlying everything. The horror than can overwhelm everything at any moment.”
Like the products of the pharmaceutical industry, which they mimic to some extent, Hirst’s Spot prints have since come in all shapes and sizes. The connection between the name of the chemical constellation and the figuration of the colored dots is random. But the names of the spot prints point towards another reality: behind the beauty of the appearance lies illness, addiction, intoxication and, finally, death. The discrepancy between the beauty of the prints and the malicious chemical substances that give them their name, hints at the fragility of life itself.
The beauty of the dots is in strong contrast with the nature of the chemical substance: ‘Methamphetamine’ has been described as a drug more dangerous than crack. It was first developed in Japan in 1919 and used by troops in war to stay awake over long periods. ‘Tetrahydrocannabinol’ is the active chemical in cannabis and one of the oldest known hallucinogenic drugs. Cannabis contains approximately 60 different psychoactive chemicals called cannabinoids, of which the most important one is ‘Tetrahydrocannabinol’.
Source: Christie’s
Auction Results
Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2025
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 44,100
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Methamphetamine | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Methamphetamine, 2004
Etching in colors on Hahnemühle etching paper
Signed in pencil, annotated ‘AP’ on the reverse
One of 30 artist’s proofs, the edition was 115
Sotheby’s New-York: 19 April 2024
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 53,340
Methamphetamine | Prints & Multiples | Prints | Sotheby’s
DAMIEN HIRST (b. 1965)
Methamphetamine, 2004
Etching printed in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil and inscribed AP on the verso
An artist’s proof aside from the numbered edition of 115
Christie’s New-York: 16 April 2024
Estimated: USD 35,000 – 45,000
USD 52,920
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Methamphetamine | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Methamphetamine, 2004
Etching in colors on Hahnemühle etching paper
Signed in pencil, annotated ‘AP’ on the reverse
One of 30 artist’s proofs, the edition was 115
Christie’s New-York: 20 April 2023
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 69,300
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Methamphetamine | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Methamphetamine, 2004
Etching in colors on Hahnemühle etching paper
Signed in pencil, annotated ‘AP’ on the reverse
One of 30 artist’s proofs, the edition was 115
Phillips New-York: 21 April 2022
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 94,500
Damien Hirst Editions & Works on Paper
Etching and aquatint in colors on Hahnemühle paper
Signed in pencil on the front and numbered 6/115 in pencil on the reverse
Christie’s New-York: 9 March 2022
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 100,800
AUCTION RECORD FOR METHAMPHETAMINE
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Methamphetamine | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Methamphetamine, 2004
Etching in colors on Hahnemüle etching paper
Signed in pencil, numbered 78⁄115 on the reverse
Tetrahydrocannabinol, 2004
Tetrahydrocannabinol
Medium: Etching and aquatint in colors on Hahnemühle paper
Year: 2004
Image: 86.2 x 178.1 cm (33 7/8 x 70 1/8 inches)
Sheet: 112 x 201.7 cm (44 1/8 x 79 3/8 inches)
Edition: 115
Artist’s Proofs: 30 AP
Publisher: The Paragon Press, London
Literature: Paragon pp. 140-141
Signed in pencil on the front
Numbered in pencil on the reverse
Instantly recognizable as deriving from Damien Hirst’s iconic series of Spot Paintings, the pharmacologically-named Tetrahydrocannabinol presents a matrix of nine by eighteen neatly organized dots, aligned like pills into a grid. Following Hirst’s strict formula, no two dots here are the same color, all are evenly spaced, and each four-inch spot is perfectly circular. While these rules may appear to limit the appearance of these paintings, the grids themselves vary in orientation, size, and scale. Hirst’s spots create a tantalizing experience for the eye, as different colours move forward or recede in relation to one another as our gaze dances across the gridded composition. While fuchsia pinks and burnt oranges attract the eye, contrasting darker tones of midnight blues and deep mahogany seem to push it away.
“Art doesn’t purport to have all the answers; the drug companies do. Hence the title of the series, and the individual titles of the paintings themselves… Art is like medicine, it can heal.”
Hirst’s Spot Paintings debuted at the legendary 1988 exhibition Freeze, often credited with marking the genesis of the YBA (Young British Artists) generation, within which Hirst was a major player. The exhibition was curated by Hirst himself while attending Goldsmiths College in a warehouse in Surrey Quays, where the first Spot Paintings were made directly onto the venue’s walls. These paintings were inherently more conceptual, sold as an idea with a certificate. Hirst’s interest in making works surrounding medicine and pharmaceuticals began in 1987, and his Spot Paintings share the same language as another of his best-known series: the pill cabinets.
Drawing on the art historical legacies of Pop and the critical approach to questions of authorship and originality developed by Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, the present lot is a culmination of and commentary on Hirst’s career-spanning interest in the dialogue between art and science. Visually captivating and conceptually rich, its immaculate and minimalist arrangement epitomizes the ongoing appeal of Hirst’s most definitive series.
Source: Phillips
Auction Results
Christie’s New-York: 25 October 2024
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 60,480
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), Tetrahydrocannabinol | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Tetrahydrocannabinol, 2004
Etching with aquatint in colors on Hahnemühle etching paper
Signed in pencil, inscribed ‘AP’ on the reverse
One of 30 artist’s proofs, the edition was 115
The Last Supper, 1999
The Last Supper
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors
Medium: Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Year: 1999
Sheet: 152.5 x 101 cm
Edition: 150
Artist’s Proofs: 25 AP
Publisher: The Paragon Press, London
Literature: Contemporary Art in Print, The Paragon Press 1995-2000, London, 201, pp. 230-243
The Last Supper by Damien Hirst – Paragon (paragonpress.co.uk)
The set comprises: Beans & Chips; Chicken; Corned Beef; Cornish Pasty; Meatballs; Mushroom; Omelette; Salad; Sandwich; Sausages; Steak & Kidney; Dumpling; Liver, Bacon & Onions.
“I can’t understand why some people believe completely in medicine and not in art, without questioning either.”
The 13 prints that make up The Last Supper refer to the number gathered at the biblical Last Supper. Hirst raises the question of whether our faith in medicine, with its promise to stave off disease and death, is now comparable to our faith in religion. He conflates minimalist pharmaceutical packaging with the form and style of art, wondering “why some people believe completely in medicine and not in art, without questioning either.” Hirst recalls watching his mother fill a prescription at a pharmacy, taking note of how at ease she was with the visual motifs used to market drugs. “My mum was looking at the same kind of stuff in the chemist’s and believing in it completely. And then, when looking at it in an art gallery, completely not believing in it.”
Each of the Last Supper prints features a pharmaceutical label that has been altered. The names of medicines have been replaced with those of common British foods (“Ethambutol Hydrochloride” becomes “Steak and Kidney,” for example) and the names or logos of the manufacturers have been replaced by those of the artist—Hirst’s own brand, so to speak. Enlarged to a heroic scale, the prints pose the question of whether pharmaceuticals—a staple of many contemporary diets—may have become not only the salvation in which we put our faith, but our daily bread.
1. Sausages
2. Meatballs
3. Dumplings
4. Liver, Bacon and Onions
5. Chicken
6. Salad
7. Steak and Kidney
8. Corned Beef
9. Cornish Pasty
10. Mushroom
11. Omelette
12. Sandwich
13. Beans & Chips
Complete Sets
Christie’s London: 26 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 37,800 / USD 48,325
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965), The Last Supper | Christie’s
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
The Last Supper, 1999
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors on wove paper
Each signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
The Leslie & Johanna Garfield Collection
Sotheby’s New-York: 18 October 2023
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 50,800
DAMIEN HIRST (b.1965)
The Last Supper, 1999
The complete set of 13 screenprints in colors on Somerset satin wove paper
Each signed in pencil, numbered 120/150 in ink on the accompanying certificate
Single Prints
Christie’s London: 1 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 4,788 / USD 6,300
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Omelette, from: The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150
Christie’s London: 1 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 2,268 / USD 2,985
DAMIEN HIRST (B. 1965)
Dumpling, from: The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150
Phillips London: 22 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 4,445 / USD 5,465
DAMIEN HIRST
Steak and Kidney, from The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)
Phillips London: 8 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 4,064 / USD 6,640
DAMIEN HIRST
Dumpling, from The Last Supper, 1999
Screenprint in colors on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, from the edition of 150 (there were also 25 artist’s proofs)