Provenance
Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Connecticut
Phillips de Pury, New York, November 7, 2011, lot 10
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery, Damien Hirst: Superstition, February 22 – April 5, 2007, p. 45 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Inspired by the surface decoration on a Victorian tea tray, Damien Hirst’s Kaleidoscope series began in 2001 and present lot, created 5 years later displays Hirst’s mastery of his technique. The Crown of Life, 2006 is comprised of Hirst’s most desired medium; butterflies. Appearing throughout Hirst’s various bodies of work, butterflies interest him because of their exquisite beauty which remains, even in death. Constructed in the shape of a classical church, stained glass window, the butterflies lie in a very precise pattern to mimic the sun illuminated, colored glass.

Hirst’s Kaleidoscope paintings are created by laying colorful butterfly wings into household paint and arranging them according to a very specific pattern, laid out and executed by Hirst. While the complete series is inspired by the religious iconography of stained glass, some of the pieces even reference specific, existing windows in churches throughout London. The spiritual nature of present lot and of the series is conveyed through not only the title, The Crown of Life, but also the symbolism of the butterfly. The "Crown of Life" refers directly to a line in the Bible, James 1:12 which states that those who remain steadfast under trial will be blessed to receive the crown of life promised to those who love God. This promise of life and resurrection is illustrated in the physical life of a butterfly. In antiquity, the image of the butterfly emerging form the chrysalis stood for the soul leaving the body at death. In Christian art the butterfly is a symbol of the resurrected human soul. The life-cycle of the caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly symbolizes life, death and resurrection. As Hirst explains, “The death of an insect …. still has this really optimistic beauty,” which can be seen within the present lot. The Kaleidoscope paintings are created with only the iridescent wings of the butterfly, according to Hirst, this is done strategically to separate the dead butterflies from “the real thing.” (Damien Hirst in Damien Hirst, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, 2005, p. 135) Hirst who has explained his obsession with death as “a celebration of life rather than something morbid,” strives artistically to find the beauty within the gruesome. (Damien Hirst cited in Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, 2001, p. 21) The fragility of the natural world is clearly exposed in the present lot, laid out for the viewer to admire the permanence or hopeful non-permanence of death. The Crown of Life, 2006 beautifully conveys Hirst's obsession with color and light and the dichotomy of life and death, elegance and obscenity, immortality and extinction.
Artist Biography
Damien Hirst
British • 1965
There is no other contemporary artist as maverick to the art market as Damien Hirst. Foremost among the Young British Artists (YBAs), a group of provocative artists who graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in the late 1980s, Hirst ascended to stardom by making objects that shocked and appalled, and that possessed conceptual depth in both profound and prankish ways.
Regarded as Britain's most notorious living artist, Hirst has studded human skulls in diamonds and submerged sharks, sheep and other dead animals in custom vitrines of formaldehyde. In tandem with Cheyenne Westphal, now Chairman of Phillips, Hirst controversially staged an entire exhibition directly for auction with 2008's "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," which collectively totalled £111 million ($198 million).
Hirst remains genre-defying and creates everything from sculpture, prints, works on paper and paintings to installation and objects. Another of his most celebrated series, the 'Pill Cabinets' present rows of intricate pills, cast individually in metal, plaster and resin, in sterilized glass and steel containers; Phillips New York showed the largest of these pieces ever exhibited in the United States, The Void, 2000, in May 2017.
View More Works

26

Damien Hirst

Disintegration - The Crown of Life

signed twice, titled and dated “Damien Hirst, "The Crown of Life," 2006” on the reverse
butterflies and household gloss on canvas, in artist's frame
117 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (299.1 x 200 cm.)
Executed in 2006.

Estimate
$1,000,000 - 1,500,000

Sold for $1,150,000

Contact Specialist
Kate Bryan
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1267

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 16 November 5 PM EST

1
Carmen Herrera
Cerulean
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $970,000
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2
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Crimson Red and Canary Yellow Butterfly 45.93)
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,450,000
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3
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,990,000
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4
Henry Taylor
He's Hear, and He's Thair
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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5
Michaël Borremans
Sweet Disposition
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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6
Vija Celmins
Untitled
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,890,000
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7
Gerhard Richter
Dϋsenjäger
Estimate $25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Sold for $25,565,000
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8
Kazuo Shiraga
T40
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,450,000
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9
Clyfford Still
Untitled
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $13,690,000
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10
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (720-2)
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Sold for $6,410,000
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11
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,150,000
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12
David Hockney
The Gate
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,970,000
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13
Alexander Calder
Two Horizontals and Nine Verticals
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,050,000
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14
Roy Lichtenstein
Ceramic Sculpture #7
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $394,000
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15
Roy Lichtenstein
Nudes in Mirror
Estimate On Request
Sold for $21,530,000
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16
Jean Dubuffet
Corps de dame, la rose incarnate
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,290,000
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17
Aristide Maillol
Baigneuse accroupie (Crouching woman)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $162,500
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18
Jeff Koons
Italian Woman
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,610,000
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19No Reserve
Donald Judd
Untitled (Menziken 88-16)
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000 •
Sold for $2,410,000
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20
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (OZEH)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,810,000
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21
Mira Schendel
Sem titulo (XII)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $970,000
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22
Andy Warhol
Cowboys and Indians
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $394,000
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23
Keith Haring
Snake and Man; Dogs and Men
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,102,000
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24
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Devil's head)
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,610,000
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25
Jean Dubuffet
Le Gommeux
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $760,000
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26
Damien Hirst
Disintegration - The Crown of Life
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,150,000
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27
George Condo
Noble Woman
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $1,006,000
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28
Richard Prince
I Went to the Doctor
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $1,570,000
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29
Ed Ruscha
Peas, Asparagus
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
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30
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $370,000
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31
Morris Louis
Tzadik
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,630,000
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32
Joe Bradley
Frankenstein
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $346,000
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33
Dan Flavin
untitled (for Leo Castelli at his gallery’s 30th anniversary) 3
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $322,000
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34
Jean Dubuffet
Femme aux Vêtements Laineux
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $274,000
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35
Francis Picabia
Untitled (Femme nue)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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36
Alexander Archipenko
Statue on Triangular Base
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $394,000
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37
Sigmar Polke
Untitled (Silver Painting)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $490,000
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 16 November 5 PM EST

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Damien Hirst

26

Damien Hirst

Disintegration - The Crown of Life

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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