Damien Hirst
Butterfly Heart, 2020
digitally signed and numbered on a label affixed to the reverse
Laminated giclée print on aluminium composite panel
Large version: 70 x 72.7 cm.
Small version: 35 x 36.4 cm.
Published by Heni Editions, London, in an edition of 1298 (Large version) and 3510 (Small version)
Butterfly Heart, 2020
digitally signed and numbered on a label affixed to the reverse
Laminated giclée print on aluminium composite panel
Large version: 70 x 72.7 cm.
Small version: 35 x 36.4 cm.
Published by Heni Editions, London, in an edition of 1298 (Large version) and 3510 (Small version)
Butterfly Heart, 2020
digitally signed and numbered on a label affixed to the reverse
Laminated giclée print on aluminium composite panel
Large version: 70 x 72.7 cm.
Small version: 35 x 36.4 cm.
Published by Heni Editions, London, in an edition of 1298 (Large version) and 3510 (Small version)
“I think rather than be personal you have to find universal triggers: everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies.”
Inspiration: a heart-shaped painting by Damien Hirst, photography Jason Schmidt @ The New York Times Style Magazine
Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol and grew up in Leeds. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths college from 1986 to 1989, and whilst in his second year, he conceived and curated the group exhibition, ‘Freeze’. The show is commonly acknowledged to have been the launching point not only for Hirst, but for a generation of British artists.
Since the late 1980s, Hirst has created installations, sculptures, paintings and drawings that explore the complex relationships between art, beauty, religion, science, life and death. Through work that includes the iconic shark in formaldehyde, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) and For the Love of God (2007), a platinum cast of a skull set with 8,601 flawless pavé-set diamonds, he investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems, and dissects the uncertainties at the heart of human experience. In April 2017, he presented his most complex project to date, ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’, across two museum spaces in Venice, Italy. The show featured around 200 works, encrusted in coral and barnacles as if salvaged from an underwater excavation. The story was detailed in a feature-length Netflix documentary.
Since 1987, over 90 solo Damien Hirst exhibitions have taken place worldwide, and he has been included in over 300 group shows. In 2012, Tate Modern, London presented a major retrospective survey of Hirst’s work in conjunction with the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Hirst’s other solo exhibitions include Qatar Museums Authority, ALRIWAQ Doha (2013–2014); Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (2010); Oceanographic Museum, Monaco (2010); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008); Astrup Fearnley Museet für Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2005); Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (2004); Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venice (2017), amongst others.
His work features in major collections including the British Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate, the Stedelijk Museum, the Yale Center for British Art, The Broad Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fondazione Prada, and Museo Jumex, among many others.
He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995. He lives and works in London, Devon and Gloucestershire.