Acrylic and metallic paint on paper

52 × 69 cm. 20 1/2 × 27 1/8 in.

Signed in English, stamped with the artist's copyright and marked with the studio's blind stamp on the reverse
EXHIBITED
25 Apr - 20 Sep 2009, Requiem, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv

PROVENANCE
Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv
Acquired directly by present private Asian collector from the above

The Poetry of Nature in All Its Goodness and Beauty
Hirst's Dazzling Kaleidoscope Butterfly

" You have to find universal triggers, everyone's frightened of glass, everyone's frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies. "
——Damien Hirst

Hirst was born in Bristol, England, in 1965 and emerged as a prominent figure in the Young British Artists (YBA) group, becoming one of the most expensive contemporary artists. He graduated from Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 1989 and loves to use the elements of nature to express cherished love and desire, life and death, and other issues. Hirst created popular series such as Butterflies, Spin Paintings, Spot Paintings, Natural History, and Medicine Cabinets. At the age of 30, he garnered significant recognition by winning the prestigious Turner Prize for his sensational installation Mother and Child Divided in 1995.In 2008, he held an unprecedented personal auction during the economic depression, with more than 200 works worth more than USD 200 million.

A Myriad of Colours Flows, Dancing Gracefully on Paper

Among all his creations, he is fascinated by butterflies because of their "beautiful yet fragile" qualities. Also in 2012, he used more than 9,000 living butterflies to create the globally discussed installation In and Out of Love at the Tate Modern retrospective in London.

The butterfly paintings are one of his most recognizable themes, and this series of works has been exhibited at renowned art institutions both domestically and internationally, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Powerlong Museum in Shanghai, and Shunde He Art Museum.

The presented artwork, Butterfly Spin Painting, was created by the artist in commemoration of his solo exhibition at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv in 2009. The piece is crafted using irregularly shaped butterfly-form papers combined with Hirst's innovative spin painting technique, which he originated in 1992. The composition is dominated by black, white, and blue, wine red for ornament. He depicted the torso of a butterfly using radiating lines of paint spun at high speed on a mechanical turntable. The colours blend and merge as they aggregate, gradually transitioning from the centre to the outer edges, covering the canvas.

The butterfly wings exhibit a translucent sapphire blue, harmoniously echoed on both sides. In contrast to traditional hand-painted oil paintings, the spin painting technique balances innovation and order in the colour palette. In this work, the artist combines his fondness for butterflies with the spin painting technique, serving as a reminder to cherish life and stay true to oneself.

Price estimate:
HKD: 60,000 - 150,000
USD: 7,700 - 19,200

Auction Result:
HKD: --