The Souls II

Damien Hirst - The Souls II

The work by Damien Hirst, The Souls II was created in 2010 as a limited edition of 15 hand-signed and numbered.

The Souls II is part of The Souls series consisting of eighty works by the artist, each featuring a butterfly placed in the center of an unadorned background. All eighty butterflies in the series are uniquely colored, emphasizing the iconic biodiversity of butterflies. The Souls II features colors such as silver gloss, chocolate and topaz.

Although the subject of the work is a butterfly, the title of the work (souls) invokes a darker and deeper association having to do with death. Damien Hirst has thus made one of the most profound explorations of the butterfly motif in this very series.

The work The Souls II was made using the metal foil block printing technique so that it was possible to achieve a shimmering effect that mimics the way the animal's wings reflect lights. This printing technique is a three-step process: the basic print is in color to which two shiny layers are added to highlight the details of the wings and chests.

Butterflies as Symbol

Damien Hirst usually uses butterflies within his works, this is because the animal has always fascinated the artist. Hirst has used the butterfly as a reflection of life throughout his artistic production, emphasizing how the animal remains immaculate once dead. This thus challenges the way we view life and death as well as playing with the concept of uniqueness; in fact, in nature no two butterflies have the same design just as no two people are exactly alike.

The tension between life and death that Hist wants to create within his work is visible in the saturated yet bright hues used to depict the work.

The Souls series is representative of the way Hirst brings the themes of morality, life, love, faith, and aesthetics into dialogue to create spectacular and aphoristic images.

Damien Hirst, The Souls II: Prices and Value

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Damien Hirst Art - One of the most Controversial and Valued Artists

Damien Hirst, artist living in Great Britain, was born in Bristol in 1965.

He is the most important exponent of the group Young British Artists (YBA), who came to light about 20 years ago for the addictive and controversial themes of their exhibitions.

Hirst’s most recurring theme is death, often represented in a non-conventional way.

His art scares and disgusts, but it’s also an invitation to reflect upon time passing by and the caducity of life.

Even though his art continues to create indignation in public’s and critics’ mind, he is one of the most famous and popular artists at the moment: everyone talks about Hirst, about his skulls made of pure diamonds, about his works realised by medicines and his stuffed animals.

The Damien Hirst’s Shark: The Physical Impossibility Of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living

The most famous artwork by Damien Hirst The Physical Impossibility Of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living, a four-meter tiger shark stuffed and preserved in a formaldehyde into a glass case.

It was commissioned in 1991 by Charles Saatchi, who sold it in 2004 for 8 million dollars, making Hirst one of the most expensive living artists in the world.

For this reason, the “Shark of Hirst” has become an icon, both positively, giving titles to books about contemporary art and the art market, and negatively, by making animal activists quite angry.

This fact contributed to increase the popularity of the artist: today, the artworks by Damien Hirst are valued millions and millions of dollars.

Damien Hirst: "Skull of Diamonds" (For the Love of God)

One of the most famous work by Damien Hirst is the discussed "skull of diamonds", whose original title is “For the Love of God”.

Hirst titled the work in this way because of the exclamation of his mother: when she became aware of his idea to work with a human skull, she exclaimed "For the love of God!".

The work is inspired by the ancient Aztec art and it recovers an ancient custom of funeral ritual.

Covered with 8.601 diamonds, this work costed 14 millions pounds: the work was created with a mould of a human skull, then fused in platinum and enriched with 8.601 diamonds, included a pink diamond in the form of a drop on the forehead of the skull.

Hirst took away teeth from the original skull, belonged to a 30-years-old European man, that lived between 1720 and 1810, and put them in the final artwork.

Hirst skull plays with taboos and with limits imposed by the art world and his themes are often macabre and disrespectful.

The original skull has a value estimated of 50 million pounds; from this artwork Hirst created a version in limited edition signed in original by the artist: it is a particular serigraphy with a 3D optical effect made in two different sizes.

ARTWORKS BY DAMIEN HIRST: BUTTERFLIES AMONG THE MOST REFINED AND EXCLUSIVE

I Love You represents a butterfly in a heart, a combination of elegance and refinement that recreates a perfect balance between freedom and stillness.

Damien Hirst Butterflies are iconic in the artist's production. They have been used in several other works: the butterfly is indeed the protagonist of the mandalas series and of the famous Tate Modern installation in which thousands of these animals flapped their wings in the spaces of the London institution.

DAMIEN HIRST’s CONTROVERSIAL ARTWORKS

Damien Hirst's works are often subject to criticism because of the stir his themes cause. The butterflies featured in Ti Amo are not the only ones used by the artist.

In particular, Hirst creates so-called flowers: sets of thousands of live lepidoptera used to create flower designs in the work entitled In and Out of Love.

Dead animals are nothing new in the work of the artist, who won the Turner prize in 1995 for a work consisting of a cow and a calf cut in half, displayed in glass tanks filled with formaldehyde.

The dead butterflies are a kind of "trademark" of the artist. Damien Hirst had previously created a canvas entirely covered with dead butterfly wings.

TREASURES FROM THE WRECK OF THE UNBELIEVABLE, DAMIEN HIRST'S ITALIAN EXHIBITION

Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, Damien Hirst's first solo exhibition in Italy in 2017, has gone beyond reality, creating a visionary narrative of monumental works.

In Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana museum, in Venice, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable registered an incredible number of visitors. To date, it is remembered as one of the largest and richest exhibitions ever held by a living artist.

The Virtues: Damien Hirst's Cherry Blossom series

Among the most recent series by Damien Hirst, Cherry Blossom (The Virtues) brings the viewer's gaze back to the joy and carefreeness of spring.

These are luminous representations of cherry blossom branches, with a strong symbolic value particularly in Japanese culture. Each subject in this series refers to one of the eight virtues of the Bushidō tradition.

DAMIEN HIRST WORKS: ART FOR SALE ON DEODATO ARTE

Deodato Arte offers a wide selection of artworks for sale by Damien Hirst, artist among the most valued in the world: Damien Hirst paintings, silkscreens and lithographs in limited edition.

For a preview of which works by Damien Hirst will be on display at Galleria Deodato Arte and to receive photos and information, contact us by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

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