St Paul’s

In 2007, Damien Hirst produced the editioned print ‘St Paul’s’, a large and dazzling network of images of butterfly wings derived from his ‘Cathedral’ portfolio. The design stems from the logic of Hirst’s acclaimed ‘Kaleidoscope Paintings’ in which the artist placed up to thousands of butterfly wings in intricate geometric patterns on household paint.

The butterfly has become one of Hirst’s signature motifs, having been used throughout his career to relay notions of beauty and spirituality. The ‘Cathedral’ series captures just this as it references religious iconography and sites of pilgrimage in their titles and designs.

What is perhaps most striking about the ‘Cathedral’ works are their capacities to imitate the light-filled sensibility of stained glass windows. In ‘St Paul’s’, Hirst cleverly anchors a composition around reflections of symmetry, accentuating a palette of blue and yellow against a green background. These captivating butterfly wing images imitate the logic of shards of glass, carefully cut and arranged to create spiritual compositions basking in light.

By combining the monumentality of traditional religious art with images of small, delicate butterfly wings in this way, ‘St Paul’s’ engages with the very existential questions of life, death, beauty and religion that have defined Hirst’s career.