DAMIEN HIRST, LULLABY, LOVE POEMS SERIES, SIGNED MIXED MEDIA, EDITION OF 55, 2015
The final etching of Damien Hirst’s Love Poems series is Lullaby from 2015, that shows six beautifully rendered butterflies scattered across the square composition. Set against a bright pink backdrop of flat colour, the butterflies are placed seemingly at random, some positioned upside down.
As with all the works in the Love Poems series, Hirst flattens the otherwise hyperrealist butterflies in Lullaby with the block colour backdrop and by showing them as though they are on display in a natural history cabinet. The scientific precision with which the butterflies are rendered emphasises this notion of the insect display cabinet. Indeed, Hirst conflates the scientific with the aesthetic throughout this series. The aesthetic comes into play in the creation of a beautiful image that uses bright and complimentary colours.
Hirst uses the butterfly motif throughout his artistic oeuvre as a ‘universal trigger.’ This motif helps the artist to explore the uncertainties at the core of human experience: love, life, death, loyalty and betrayal through unconventional media. The Love Poems series points to this exploration in its title, each of the prints attributed with a poetic or affectionate title like She Walks in Beauty or Longing.
Read more about Love Poems by Damien Hirst.
ABOUT DAMIEN HIRST
Arguably one the most successful and well-known artists in the world to date, Damien Hirst is a creative visionary, his brand as prolific as his artwork. Exhibited internationally, he works across sculpture, painting, drawing or installation to create artworks that are characterised by their intensity and tension. Taking inspiration from a range of sources, including Abstract Expressionists John Hoyland and Willem de Kooning, he has cultivated a style recognisable for its brash monumentalism and unapologetic gall. Learn more about Damien Hirst.
