Private collection.

"You paint the walls white, and then life comes in and fucks it up. Like minimal paintings that have been fucked up by butterflies landing in paint."-Damien Hirst

Shortly after graduating, Hirst began work on a series of paintings inspired by seeing flies get stuck on primed canvases in his Brixton studio. Taking this idea but wanting to create something beautiful, Hirst started fixing the bodies of butterflies to monochrome gloss-painted canvases. The choice of household gloss is integral to the works, intended by Hirst to “look like an accident of paint with butterflies stuck on it”.

For the artist, the appeal of butterflies is created largely by the appearance of life they retain. The monochrome paintings are the earliest example of his use of the insects, which were to become one of his most recognisable motifs. On their repeated appearance in his work he explains: “I think rather than be personal you have to find universal triggers: everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies.”