The Souls I (prairie copper, oriental gold, imperial purple)
The Souls I (prairie copper, oriental gold, imperial purple)
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
£6,000-£9,000Value Indicator
$12,500-$19,000 Value Indicator
$11,000-$17,000 Value Indicator
¥60,000-¥90,000 Value Indicator
€7,000-€10,500 Value Indicator
$60,000-$100,000 Value Indicator
¥1,190,000-¥1,790,000 Value Indicator
$8,000-$12,000 Value Indicator
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72 x 51cm, Edition of 15, Foil Block
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
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Meaning & Analysis
As part of an extensive collection of prints by Damien Hirst called The Souls series from 2010, The Souls I (prairie copper, oriental gold, imperial purple) is a print that shows a large purple and orange butterfly with its wings outspread. Set against a white backdrop, the butterfly is created using a metallic foil block printing technique to produce a shimmering effect that reflects the way their wings reflect the light.
Hirst speaks of his motivations for depicting the butterflies in this series, explaining: “I love butterflies because when they are dead they look alive. The foil block makes the butterflies have a feel similar to the actual butterflies in the way they reflect the light. After ‘The Dead’ I had to do the butterflies because you can’t have one without the other.”
Across the entire of The Souls series there are four species of butterflies depicted in each print, within which are 80 colour variations, each presented as an edition of 15. The abundance of butterflies across the series reflects the various insects found in a meadow, each one unique. The sheer scale on which Hirst works is crucial to this series that brings together themes around morality, life, love, faith and aesthetics.
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.
