Name: Elation
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst's Elation (signed) is estimated to be worth between £19,000 and £28,000. This screenprint, created in 2017, has been sold 3 times at auction since its initial sale in October 2018. Over the past 12 months, the average selling price was £24,000, across 1 total sale. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £24,000 in October 2024 to £32,442 in July 2020. The current average annual growth rate is -1%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 50.

Meaning & Analysis

Elation is a screen print by Damien Hirst that depicts a symmetrical, kaleidoscopic pattern made up of many butterfly wings. This mesmerising composition is depicted in various shades of blue, forming a highly aesthetic image, and is linked to the artist’s kaleidoscope paintings from the 2000s.

Evoking the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals, Hirst’s kaleidoscope paintings are reminiscent of his many kaleidoscopic paintings from the 2000s. For these works, Hirst used hundreds of real butterfly wings to create meticulous patterns, thus obscuring the wings from butterflies in the real world.

Elation is indicative of Hirst’s desire to bring together themes of science, aesthetics and religion through the leitmotif of the butterfly. Recalling someone once saying to him: “Butterflies are beautiful, but it’s a shame they have disgusting hairy bodies in the middle,” Hirst in works like this chose only to display the dazzling wings of the insect. The butterfly has been used by the Greeks to depict Psyche, the soul, and in Christian imagery represents resurrection. In bringing together the fragility of the butterfly wings with the monumentality of religious art, Hirst investigates seemingly conflicting ideas that are at the core of humanity.

Damien Hirst, born in Bristol in 1965, is often hailed the enfant terrible of the contemporary art world. His provocative works challenge conventions and his conceptual brilliance spans installations, paintings, and sculptures, often exploring themes of mortality and the human experience. As a leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement in the late '80s, Hirst's work has dominated the British art scene for decades and has become renowned for being laced with controversy, thus shaping the dialogue of modern art.