Damien Hirst – Psalm: Miserere mei Deus

Description

Damien Hirst, Psalm: Miserere mei Deus is a silkscreen print with glitter. This print is signed and numbered on the front by the artist.

Psalm paintings are crafted from just two things: ordinary household paint and butterfly wings. The result is a series totalling 150 works, all marvellous and wholly hypnotic, kaleidoscopic geometry resembling Gothic stained glass windows. Damien Hirst named them after psalms from the Old Testament.

Hirst began using butterflies in his work as early as 1989. Describing the insect as a ‘universal trigger’, he has explained: “Everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies.” The ‘Psalms’ form part of the ‘Kaleidoscope’ series, conceived by the artist in 2001 after he found a Victorian tea tray decorated with intricate patterns of butterfly wings. The works reference the spiritual symbolism of the butterfly, used by the Greeks to depict Psyche, the soul, and in Christian imagery to signify the resurrection. The perfect symmetry which characterises the ‘Psalms’ alludes to both the displays of light, colour and beauty as presented in Gothic stained glass windows, and the circular patterns of Buddhist mandalas. The paintings, which are rendered on uniformly-sized circular, square or diamond-shaped canvases, might variously be interpreted as explorations into the nature of beauty, religion, death and the fragility of life.

Hirst is renowned for his Butterfly Series, in which Hirst arranged thousands of butterfly wings in a mandala-like pattern. Another popular Hirst series are the ‘Spin’ paintings. Damien Hirst designed the sets for Glastonbury, a play about the Glastonbury music festival, and Hirst designed and directed Breath, the 30-45 second film version of Samuel Beckett’s 1969 short.

The art of Damien Hirst has been exhibited widely, in Britain, Korea, the USA, Australia, and countries all over Europe. Hirst’s work is included in many private collections and in permanent collections at public museums and galleries. Damien Hirst now lives in Devon with his sons Connor (b.1995) and Cassius (b.2000) and girlfriend Maia Norman. Damien Hirst works at his home and in London.

The art of Damien Hirst has a visual power that is virtually unmatched by any possible description of it. One cannot really hope to understand it, or even visualize it without experiencing it firsthand.

Damien Hirst Psalm: Miserere mei Deus

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