Provenance

Private collection, New York
Catalogue Essay

During the past decade, Hirst has experimented with butterflies as a medium. Using them like kaleidoscope pieces, he created large, stainedglass- like patterns and mandalas that referenced religion and ceremony, vanity and luxury, and the delicacy of life. Eventually these solid surfaces of butterflies gave way to solid panels painted with vibrant gloss and stuck with butterflies as though captured in air while flying. The present lot is an exciting example of this series, which continues Hirst’s artistic legacy of applying a moralizing spin on delicate or expensive objects. Referencing at once romance, commercialized love, and the history of scientific cataloguing, the candy-pink heart is a startling momento mori, reminding of inevitable mortality and the randomness of life. Beautiful and soulful, the butterflies speak to the fragility of nature. Captured, admired and adored, the dead butterflies are trapped in the dried veneer—their bodies representing everlasting marks on the canvas, an infinity that will outlast our lives. “I used to walk into a room and get on the table and go “Hee-hah!” I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you’re not. You’re celebrating the fact that nothing can stop you… You’re kind of like that and celebrating every moment in that way.”
(Damien Hirst in A.H. Guest, “Damien Hirst,” Interview Magazine, New York, December 2008/January 2009, p. 150)
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

110

Damien Hirst

Untitled

2002

Household gloss with butterflies on shaped canvas.
84 3/4 x 84 3/4 in. (215.3 x 215.3 cm).

Estimate
$700,000 - 900,000

Sold for $782,500

Contemporary Art Part I

13 May 2010
New York

101
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $266,500
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102
George Condo
Young Woman with Pearl Necklace
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $194,500
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103
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled (Plan B)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $602,500
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104
Urs Fischer
The Grass Munchers
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $902,500
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105
Ugo Rondinone
21. Mai 2006
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $104,500
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106
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $206,500
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107
Mark Handforth
Chain Trashcan
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $62,500
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108
Mark Bradford
All I Need is “One” More Chance
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $542,500
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109
Antony Gormley
Sublimate II
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $554,500
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110
Damien Hirst
Untitled
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $782,500
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111
Lisa Yuskavage
KK in Red Room
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $230,500
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112
Jeff Koons
Stay in Tonight
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $698,500
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113
Richard Prince
Oh Henry
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,200,000
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114
Kehinde Wiley
Support the Army and Look After the People
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $104,500
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115
Barnaby Furnas
Duel (July 4th)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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116
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Rubber
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,762,500
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117
Andy Warhol
Jackie
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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118
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Jörg Schellmann)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $266,500
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119
Christopher Wool
Untitled (P447)
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $626,500
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120
Roni Horn
Key and Cue, No. 807: Expectation—is contentment
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $158,500
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121
Steven Parrino
Pull Down
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $506,500
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122
Donald Judd
Untitled (91-138 Menziken)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $434,500
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123
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $812,500
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124
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (OQ4)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $422,500
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125
Frank Stella
Khurasan Gate III
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
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126
Robert Mangold
Red February #3
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
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127
Adolph Gottlieb
Black Note
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $338,500
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128
Kenneth Noland
Untitled
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $542,500
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129
Robert Mangold
Curled Figure XXI Study
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $116,500
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130
Mary Heilmann
Black Dahlia III
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $68,500
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131
Peter Halley
Blue Prison
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
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132
Donald Judd
Untitled (1968-76)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $86,500
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133
Mark Tansey
Redeployment
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $962,500
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134
John Baldessari
Lion Jet Truck
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $554,500
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135
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $638,500
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136
Joseph Cornell
Hotel Andromeda
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $170,500
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137
Roy Lichtenstein
Modern Painting
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $422,500
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138
Tom Wesselmann
Sunset Nude (Light)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $914,500
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139
Andy Warhol
Flowers
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $458,500
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140
Andy Warhol
Ads Painting (Rebel Without a Cause [James Dean])
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $602,500
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141
Liza Lou
Offensive/Defensive
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $278,500
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142
Chris Ofili
Silver Moon
Estimate $450,000 - 600,000
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143
George Condo
Widow’s Watch
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $362,500
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144
Lisa Yuskavage
Bad Habits: Asspicking, Foodeating, Headshrinking, Socialclimbing, Motherfucker
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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145
Banksy
Untitled (Toxic Marys)
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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146
Margherita Manzelli
Miss Missy
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $80,500
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147
Paul McCarthy
Untitled (from Propo-Series) (Peaches)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
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148
Leandro Erlich
La Vista (The View)
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
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149
Jules de Balincourt
I Infect You, You Infect Me
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $84,100
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150
Wangechi Mutu
Untitled
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $116,500
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151
Wolfgang Tillmans
Supercollider (Refraction) C
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $88,900
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152
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Lucky
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
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Contemporary Art Part I

13 May 2010 New York

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Damien Hirst

110

Damien Hirst

Untitled

Contemporary Art Part I

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13 May 2010
New York