Name: Psilocybin
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst's Psilocybin (signed) is estimated to be worth between £6,500 and £10,000. This digital print, created in 2013, has shown consistent value growth since its first sale in January 2018. Over the past 12 months, the average selling price was £8,000, across 1 total sales. This artwork has an auction history of 5 total sales. The hammer price over the last five years has ranged from £8,000 in October 2024 to £10,000 in June 2022. The current average annual growth rate is -11%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 100.

Meaning & Analysis

Psilocybin is a digital print from 2013 by Damien Hirst that shows a large grid of colourful spots set against a white backdrop. The print is created with lenticular technology and thus the spots move from side to side as the viewer moves. Psilocybin is based on Hirst’s famous Spots paintings, a series of over 1,400 works on canvas that depict coloured dots in grid-like compositions set against white backdrops.

The Spots works are amongst Hirst’s most broadly recognised works. Stretching as far back as 1986, the Spots paintings recur thematically throughout Hirst’s career in a number of mediums and were first displayed at the landmark group show Freeze in London’s Docklands. As with other spot works on paper, Psilocybin delivers stark, cynical satire using a visual language that is, on the surface, joyous and carefree. This work also uses movement as a means to communicate its meaning.

Discussing the aesthetic of the Spots paintings, Hirst has proclaimed “I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer. I love colour. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz.” At his best, Hirst packs multiple layers into the seemingly simple and Psilocybin is no exception. The print recalls the absurdity of Dada and gently mocks the processes of pointillism.