DAMIEN HIRST | The Midas Principle

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although it fails to fully convey the metallic qualities of the gold paint and the iridescent qualities of some of the butterflies and the cubic zirconia. Condition: The work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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A panoply of butterflies hovers over a monochrome canvas of gold, their exuberant gossamer wings stretched taut as if in flight. Their appearance of motion contrasts the stillness of the painting, and the butterflies’ fragile beauty is immortalised through its enshrinement in gold. Executed in 2009, The Midas Principle exemplifies Damien Hirst’s unyielding philosophical enquiry into beauty and its ephemerality through the symbol of the butterfly. Substituting the usual primary colour monochrome canvases for one of gold, the present work is a rare synthesis of Hirst’s most well-known motif with his more recent fascination with gold and the Midas myth. Of all the leitmotifs Hirst has explored, from sharks to pills to disembodied oxen, the butterfly is among Hirst’s earliest and most mesmerising. Even before his first show involving butterflies at the Woodstock Gallery in 1991, Hirst was interested in butterflies. In his Brixton bedroom, Hirst constructed a giant wooden box where he bred and hatched pupae. For his now emblematic 1991 show, In and Out of Love, Hirst moved his butterfly greenhouse into the gallery space. In one room, butterflies hatched from pupae attached to white canvases and went through their lives inside the gallery space. In the second room, dead butterflies were fixed to monochrome gloss paintings like taxidermies in a Darwinian display cabinet.

If the monochrome butterfly paintings immortalised Hirst’s obsession with death and life’s ephemeral beauty, then the introduction of gold as background imbued his concept with the solemnity of religion and spirituality. The monochrome gold background in The Midas Principle recalls the gilded backdrops to depictions of Christ, Mary and the saints in Byzantine mosaics and Italian panel paintings. Gold, in addition to its economic value, was chosen as a symbol of eternity. Under the auspices of golden backgrounds and halos, the artworks told the stories of Christ and the saints, of their eventual return and the advent of eternal life. The Midas Principle, through its use of gold, bestows this holy trinity of birth, death and resurrection onto the life cycles of butterflies, so that their existence is elevated to divine significance.

Beyond the celebration of life’s brevity and beauty, The Midas Principle conveys a more sinister, tragic message. In Greek mythology, King Midas was gifted the ability to turn anything he touched into gold. Such power, though initially celebrated, heralded a gruelling end. As the King touched his daughter, she morphed unwittingly into a golden statue. Even his food turned to metal as he reached out for it. Ever adept at re-staging traditional narratives in contemporary contexts, Hirst ironically imagines himself as a Midas-figure: “It's definitely about feeling a bit like King Midas,
like everything he touches turns to gold. And there are bad aspects of what can happen with that as well. Gold's the thing when you open the briefcase in the movie, it shines on you and sucks you in” (Damien Hirst in conversation with Gordon Burn in: Auc. Cat., Sotheby's, London, Beautiful inside My Head Forever, 27 June 2008, p. 24).