In vibrant hues of crimson, teal and amber, Damien Hirst’s Catholicism is a mesmerising example of the Butterfly Kaleidoscope paintings. Perhaps one of his most recognisable and iconic motifs, Hirst’s butterflies established the artist as a household name. Hirst first began sticking 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 into symmetrical and intricate compositions. Here, Hirst presents us with a kaleidoscopic vision of hundreds of meticulously placed butterfly wings, set against a backdrop of vivid red gloss paint. 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 in an intricate mosaic, the butterfly wings coalesce into a composition which appears to shift and evolve before the viewer’s eyes.

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 juxtaposing the chemical toxicity of the cigarettes. Upstairs, white paintings with pupae of Malaysian butterflies glued to them were hung around the space. Butterflies would hatch and flutter around the room, feeding on nectar from pot plants before eventually dying. Presenting life and death for all to witness and experience, butterflies were a potent symbol for both the beauty and fragility of life, and occupies a central space in the artist’s prolific oeuvre. In 2001 Hirst began the Butterfly Grid Paintings, 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 specimens. 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.

From the sixteenth century still-life painters whose fine brush strokes captured the intricate patterns of fluttering wings, to Jean Dubuffet who collaged the iridescent specimens as found objects on his canvases, butterflies have long been a source of artistic inspiration and fascination. A perfect example of life, death and physical transformation from an unattractive cocoon to a graceful creature, the butterfly forms a core part of Hirst’s artistic vocabulary. In Christian iconography, the butterfly often signifies the Resurrection of Christ. Indeed, the visual connection between the vivid pattern of the butterflies on the surface of the present work and the kaleidoscopic stained-glass windows of Europe’s great Cathedrals is apparent, and the pious titles bestowed upon the works in the same series carry out symbolic and religious associations: “Within Hirst’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ paintings, therefore, endorsed by the religiosity of the works’ titles, the butterflies seem to perform different functions: aesthetic, conceptual, symbolic and psychological” (Michael Bracewell, “Kaleidoscope” in Damien Hirst and Jason Beard, Damien Hirst: The Complete Psalm Paintings, London, 2014, n.p.). Thus, for an artist obsessed with mortality and the comforting structure of religion – a lasting hangover from his Catholic upbringing – butterflies represent the perfect synthesis of life and death.

The painstakingly created Butterfly Kaleidoscope Paintings, although ostensibly morbid, nonetheless broadcast a potent celebration of life. Hirst himself claims, “I’ve got an obsession with death… But I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid.” (Damien Hirst quoted in: Gordon Burn and Damien Hirst, On the Way to Work, London 2011, p. 21). Encapsulating the awe-inspiring brilliance of a Gothic stained-glass window, Catholicism strikes a delicate balance between tragic poignancy and exultant splendour, engendering a new language of aesthetic consolation for art in a scientific age.