Weng Contemporary – Damien Hirst, “Butterfly Heart (Large)” 2020

Released in May 2020, Damien Hirst’s Butterfly Heart was produced as a symbol of support of the NHS in Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic. This edition consists of digitally made photographed real butterfly wings placed onto a heart-shaped aluminum panel. This edition includes Hirst´s best-known motifs; the butterflies, and the rainbow colour allignment on the heart-shaped print. Shortly after graduating from Goldsmiths, in 1989, Hirst began working on a series of paintings after seeing flies get stuck on primed canvases in his Brixton studio. Taking this idea, but wanting to create something beautiful, Hirst started fixing the bodies of dead butterflies to monochrome gloss-painted canvases. The appeal of butterflies is created largely by the appearance of life they retain in death. The Butterfly works go hand-in-hand with the heart-shaped canvases. Soon after Hirst began working on his now-iconic series of butterfly paintings he shaped the canvas into a heart – the international symbol for love.
“ I think rather than be personal you have to find universal triggers: everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies. „

—Damien Hirst