達米恩·赫斯特

White Cube, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, A selection of works by Damien Hirst from various collections, 2005

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the illustration fails to convey the depth and varied texture of the flies. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Interwoven into the fabric of Hirst’s oeuvre, Death, Mortality and Religion have long occupied a position of the utmost centrality ever since the early 1990s. The visual language of Judgement Day/Atonement is the exemplification of Hirst’s narrative. Manifested by the use of butterflies and flies, the present work articulates a grand existential allegory for life and death.


In its monochromatic darkness, the dense mass of dead flies entombed upon the canvas harness the concept of Hirst’s iconic installation A Thousand Years (1991). The role of flies in this masterwork vividly symbolise and enact a metaphor for the cycle of life and as such is the foremost exemplification of Hirst’s obsession with death: “You can frighten people with death or an idea of their own mortality, or it can actually give them vigour” (Damien Hirst interviewed by Alastair Sooke, ‘We’re Here for a Good Time, not a Long Time’, The Telegraph, 8 January 2011). Recalling the mass of fallen flies confined within the walls of this iconic and pioneering vitrine work, Hirst first started gluing thousands of flies onto a canvas in 1997. Five years later (inspired by Richard Serra’s black monochromatic paintstick drawings) Hirst returned to the concept of the fly paintings. As he explains, “I think it was Thomas Hobbes who said people are like flies, like the cycle of a fly is like your own life. When you make that connection with the paintings… it is like all the people in the world who die in a hundred years. That amount of death is pretty black” (Damien Hirst interviewed by Mirta D’Argenzio in: Exhibition Catalogue, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Damien Hirst: The Agony and the Ecstasy Selected Works from 1989-2004, 2004-05, p. 94).


If the left-hand canvas, engulfed in a black cloud of demise, is unadorned and forthright in encapsulating Hirst’s morbid fascination with death and decay, in contrast, the delicate and effervescent butterflies bestow an unrivalled expression of the beauty and fragility of life. Vivid and kaleidoscopic, the fragmented composition, a paradox in ordered chaos, is a complex metaphor referencing the spiritual symbolism of the butterfly in Christian Imagery, utilised by Renaissance masters to signify the resurrection. Set into a paint film of gloss, the naturally saturated, exuberant hues of the butterflies gossamer wings - iridescent and reflecting light - are so mesmerising that standing before this work is analogous to the reverence-inspiring experience of standing below a cathedral’s stained-glass window. An historic art form pre-dating medieval times, stained-glass windows were designed to inspire awe in the narration of biblical stories and the lives of saints. In the same way, the right-hand canvas of this diptych stuns the viewer into contemplation. Due to the complex composition, its appearance changes when viewed from different distances and perspectives. From afar, the individual wings resemble jewel-like tesserae in mosaic, brimming with azurite, amber and golden-yellow sapphires, with each intense colour subservient to the chromatic design of the overarching principle. The blue butterflies, with iridescent wings as rich in hue as lapis-lazuli, reflect the light to such a degree that the surface scintillates and shimmers. A panoply of different species burst from the artificial background with a vibrancy that speaks of life and joy, yet these creatures are emphatically dead and lifeless. The fragile transcience of life is gloriously yet poignantly telescoped in Hirst's spectacular mosaic of butterflies.


Loaded with religious undertones, the present work references the theological theory of the Last Day of Judgement, the depiction of which has remained prevalent for Western artists since the Thirteenth Century, from Hieronymus Bosch to Michelangelo. According to the Christian Doctrine, the dead will rise and their souls will finally be judged and consigned to heaven or hell. In Judgement Day/Atonement, Hirst magnificently references this iconographic theme. The illuminating, ethereal butterflies juxtaposed against an unnerving mausoleum of flies indicate righteous souls sitting on the right-hand side of Christ being conducted towards heaven, while on the left sinners are driven towards eternal suffering.


Whilst the aura of death looms over Hirst’s work, in truth, as Andrew Wilson notes, he “makes art about death that celebrates life, and his work continues to grapple these profound themes in a myriad of themes in myriad ways” (Andrew Wilson, ‘Believer’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Tate Modern, Damien Hirst, 2012, p. 203). In Judgement Day/Atonement the two separate canvases join together to form a cohesive representation of death and resurrection. For Hirst, “each part of a pair has its own life, independent of the other, but they live together” (Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2002, p.131).