Longing
Longing
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
£7,000-£10,500Value Indicator
$14,500-$22,000 Value Indicator
$13,000-$19,000 Value Indicator
¥70,000-¥100,000 Value Indicator
€8,000-€12,000 Value Indicator
$70,000-$110,000 Value Indicator
¥1,320,000-¥1,980,000 Value Indicator
$9,500-$14,000 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Intaglio
Edition size: 55
Year: 2014
Size: H 76cm x W 74cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | Bonhams Los Angeles | United States | |||
| October 2019 | Sotheby's New York | United States | |||
| April 2019 | Sotheby's New York | United States | |||
| September 2018 | Sotheby's London | United Kingdom |
Meaning & Analysis
Taken from Damien Hirst’s Love Poems series from 2015, Longing is a signed print that shows an image of seven brightly coloured butterflies. Rendered with a vivid green backdrop, the butterflies are abstracted against the flatness of the print. Each butterfly is unique and is placed randomly across the picture plane, some even appearing upside down.
Hirst has deployed the butterfly motif throughout his artistic oeuvre, beginning with his 1991 In and Out of Love (Butterfly Paintings and Ashtrays)installation that fixed the bodies of dead butterflies into monochrome gloss paint. The artist’s preoccupation with butterflies is rooted in the way that even when the insects are dead, they appear to be alive. Well known for his obsession with mortality, Hirst claims that his use of the butterfly motif is a symbol for the celebration of life rather than death.
The intuitive colour choice of Longing is based on aesthetic and non-rational demands that have remained in Hirst’s practice since his art training at Goldsmiths. This print depicts the butterflies in a variety of bright and contrasting colours such as blue, orange, purple, pink and yellow. In its playful colour choice, this print is eye-catching and has a universal appeal.
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.
