Provenance

Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills
Exhibited

Gagosian Gallery, Damien Hirst: Superstition, Beverly Hills, February 22 - April 5, 2007
Literature

M. Willner, ed., Damien Hirst: Superstition, London, 2007, pp. 32-33, 170 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
The butterfly, in many cultures, symbolizes beauty, love, change, and evolution in its most basic physiological state. The image of the butterfly has been venerated visually for both its beauty and its symbolic reference to the process of growth. This metamorphosis begins with an egg which hatches into a caterpillar which then grows and develops into a butterfly. Through this transformation the process of life begins. In some cultures the connotation of the butterfly is more symbolic with profound spiritual and religious meaning. Some 3,500 years ago in Thebes, today's Luxor Egyptian hieroglyphics depicted butterflies in tombs for their beauty are rarity in Egypt. In ancient Greek the word for butterfly is "psyche" which means "soul,” and was also the name of Eros’ lover, the Greek goddess of beauty Psyche. Often when the two figures are depicted they are surrounded by butterflies. In Mexico the butterfly is seen as a soul, and it is to a small town that the monarch butterflies migrate every year on and around the holiday known as the Day of the Dead. They are seen as the returned souls of the deceased. The Native Americans believe if you whisper a secret to a butterfly and release it, your wish will be carried to the Great Spirit. The act of releasing this butterfly from captivity is what will help restore the balance with nature and your wish will be granted.

Damien Hirst, an international art superstar, gained this recognition through works using taxidermy animals such as sheep, pigs, sharks, and butterflies as the main focus of some of his most notable and successful works. Death is a central theme in many of Hirst's works. When using these animals in his pieces Hirst explores the mortality of not just these particular beings but mortality as a whole. Works such as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (a shark floating in formaldehyde) directly confront the viewer with their own mortality. Similarly, the butterflies affixed to the canvas are the beauty of life frozen in death.

His first butterfly paintings were exhibited in 1991 at the Woodstock Gallery in London. This exhibition was his first solo show and titled In and Out of Love. For his solo show he filled the gallery with live butterflies, many of which generated from those attached to his monochromatic canvases with gloss household paint. Hirst created an incubator within the gallery, transforming it into an artificial environment wherein the cycle of life and death coexisted with the exhibiting of living and dead insects together. The idea of observing mortality and life would consistently be an important theme in most of his work moving forward. The present piece, Since the Majority of me Rejects the Majority of You-Vision, 2006, was created more than a decade after the first series of butterfly paintings was exhibited. In this piece the actual butterflies are carefully arranged in gloss household paint as Hirst elaborates on the motif of the butterfly as a symbol of beauty, the inherent fragility of life, and radiance. Similar to his previous works, Hirst has approached the idea of existence and being in a very direct and confrontational manner. This arouses aesthetics and our awareness about the lines of separation between life and death and love and hate by immortalizing these butterflies and giving them the potential to live on forever.

The vibrant display of color and flow of the placement of butterflies shimmers and glows as if lit from within the canvas, resembling the Rosace windows found in the Rayonnant Period of Gothic architecture. In the world’s oldest churches, eternity is explored through religious depictions done in centuries old tradition of stained glass craftsmanship. Hirst uses tools and iconography of religion to create this piece, so it is no coincidence that these butterflies glow and glisten like the Rosace of Notre Dame. The classic shape of this piece, composition, and symmetry of the butterflies take their inspiration from stained glass church windows. The title of the piece is two-parted; the first part coming from the poems in Philip Larkin’s collection High Windows, and the second making direct reference to religious iconography. Perhaps one of the best examples of stained glass is the windows of Notre Dame. The rose windows in particular; the fine detail of the rose window in the north transept of Paris' Notre-Dame, c. 1255, with 80 Old Testament scenes centered on the Virgin and the large rose window in the south transept depicts Christ surrounded by apostles, martyrs, the wise and foolish virgins, and the story of Matthew. Similar to Hirst’s work, the rose window depictions are a symbol of eternity and religious iconography and a story which is carried out within the glass.

Although Hirst has a different story playing out within his piece, the eternal symbolism is still there. His fascination with mortality and the belief that art is the only thing truly eternal, not religion or medicine, is implicit when considering this work. Within this piece he attempts to capture something timeless in a work of art. There is an unavoidable religious connotation in Hirst's use of butterflies which symbolizes the life cycle and, in –Visions, mortality. He notes, "I didn't want to believe in God. But I suddenly realized that my belief in art is really similar to believing in God." His sense of faith in art comes through in his work, which, though subversive, is built on a belief of forwarding art, not jaded contempt for it.
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.
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117

Damien Hirst

Since the Majority of Me Rejects the Majority of You – Vision

2006

Butterflies and gloss household paint on canvas.
Diameter: 72 in. (182.9 cm).

Signed, titled, and dated “Damien Hirst ‘Vision’ 2006” on the reverse.

Estimate
$1,500,000 - 2,000,000

Sold for $1,609,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 May 2008, 7pm
New York

101
Mark Bradford
I Thought You Knew
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $325,000
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102
Banks Violette
Untitled (Boom Box)
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
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103
Christopher Wool
Untitled (P273)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $577,000
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104
Steven Parrino
Skeletal Implosion #3
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $657,000
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105
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Pink Butterfly Green MG03)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $757,800
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106
Richard Prince
Untitled (Portrait)
Estimate $1,650,000 - 1,750,000
Sold for $1,273,000
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107
Tom Friedman
Garbage Can
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $505,000
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108
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Blue Face Grotjahn)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,217,000
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109
Damien Hirst
Amphotericin B
Estimate $4,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,177,000
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110
Takashi Murakami
Superflat Monogram
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $724,200
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111
Jeff Koons
Self-Portrait
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $7,545,000
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112
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $481,000
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113
Banks Violette
Kill all Rock Stars (Kurt Cobain)
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $157,000
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114
Cady Noland
Pipe Dream
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $229,000
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115
Andy Warhol
Gun
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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116
Jeff Koons
Jim Beam – Caboose
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,385,000
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117
Damien Hirst
Since the Majority of Me Rejects the Majority of You – Vision
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,609,000
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118
John Chamberlain
Mr. Moto
Estimate $1,300,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,105,000
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119
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild 610-1 (Abstract Painting 610-1)
Estimate $7,000,000 - 9,000,000
Sold for $4,521,000
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120
Damien Hirst
Beautiful Dirvish Spin Me Round on the Ground Painting
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $541,000
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121
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Fallen Angel)
Estimate $12,000,000 - 16,000,000
Sold for $11,241,000
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122
George Condo
Tumbling Heads
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,049,000
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123
Damien Hirst
Untitled aaaa
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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124
Damien Hirst
Beautiful Androgynous Hermaphrodite Painting
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $481,000
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125
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $2,800,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,281,000
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126
Jeff Koons
New Shelton Wet/Dry 10 Gallon
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,673,000
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127
John Currin
Couple in Bed
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $601,000
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128
Robert Gober
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $3,625,000
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129
David Hammons
Untitled
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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130
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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131
Anselm Kiefer
The Secret Life of Plants
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,833,000
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132
Frank Stella
Raft of the Medusa, Part IV
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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133
Cecily Brown
Hard, Fast and Beautiful
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $657,000
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134
Wilhelm Sasnal
Factory
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $217,000
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135
Albert Oehlen
Titankatze Mit Versuchstier (Titanium Cat with Laboratory Tested Animal)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $265,000
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136
Luc Tuymans
Exhibit #1
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $541,000
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137
Kai Althoff
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $265,000
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138
Jörg Immendorff
Marcels Erlösung (Marcel’s Salvation)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $265,000
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139
Hernan Bas
Monster (from the series A Little Moby Dick in All of Us)
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $175,000
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140
Olafur Eliasson
The Inner Cave
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
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141
Julian Schnabel
Tomorrow I Shave
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $241,000
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142
Yayoi Kusama
In the Mid Afternoon
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $181,000
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143
Robert Indiana
Nocturnal Nonagon
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $361,000
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144
Wayne Thiebaud
Cat and Traffic
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
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145
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, 'Sixteen Jackies', 1964
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $253,000
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146
Mark Tansey
Reader
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
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147
Damien Hirst
Posterity – The Holy Place
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,441,000
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148
Franz Ackermann
Transall Delivering a Piece of My Hometown
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
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149
Martin Kobe
Rudera
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $205,000
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150
Dirk Skreber
House (13 Floors)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $121,000
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151
Andreas Gursky
Düsseldorf Flughafen II
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $217,000
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152
Thomas Scheibitz
Rosenweg
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $169,000
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153
Dana Schutz
Sword Rack
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $133,000
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154
Yoshitomo Nara
The Little Pilgrims Night Walking
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $313,000
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155
Albert Oehlen
Palmen (Palms)
Estimate $220,000 - 280,000
Sold for $241,000
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156
Wangechi Mutu
Soul on a Peg Leg
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $193,000
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157
Anselm Reyle
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $181,000
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158
Peter Halley
Todd
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $241,000
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159
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Free Love)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $133,000
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160
Richard Prince
Untitled (Make-up)
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $205,000
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161
James Turrell
Phantom, (White)
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $301,000
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162
Mike Kelley
Private Address System
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $205,000
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163
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $481,000
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164
Matthew Barney
Cremaster 5: Bocsass el
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $169,000
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165
Kendell Geers
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $61,000
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Contemporary Art Part I

15 May 2008, 7pm New York

Create your first list.

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Damien Hirst

117

Damien Hirst

Since the Majority of Me Rejects the Majority of You – Vision

Contemporary Art Part I

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15 May 2008, 7pm
New York