Meaning & Analysis

Miracle is a signed giclée print with glaze produced by renowned contemporary artist, Damien Hirst. The print, made in 2015, shows a mesmerising pattern of concentric circles composed of butterflies. The butterflies are set against a bright yellow background, with the circles emanating from a small red and black butterfly in the centre of the composition. Blue, red, white and yellow dominate the composition, making it a bold and vibrant print.

read more about Kaleidoscope

The print is part of Hirst’s Kaleidoscope series, an ambitious project started by the artist in 2001 which was inspired by the intricate pattern of butterfly wings Hirst saw on an old Victorian tea tray. Hirst has had a longstanding fascination with butterflies and the artist frequently incorporates the insect into his artworks. Arguably the most notable use of butterflies was in 1991, when Hirst created a live installation in which butterflies emerged from pupae attached to white painted canvases kept in a humid exhibition room.

Part of the artist’s fascination with butterflies lies in the way they can be used to explore questions of life and death. For Hirst, butterflies embody the fragility of life because they retain an iridescent beauty even in death. Butterflies are also imbued with a significant spiritual symbolism as they were used by the Greeks to depict the Psyche and soul and found in Christian imagery to signify the resurrection.