To Love

Damien Hirst’s edition ‘To Love’ comes from an expertly crafted series of etchings created by the artist in 2008. Taking a singular butterfly as its subject, Hirst emphasises the beauty of the insect’s form and colour in intricate detail.

While butterfly imagery is commonplace in Hirst’s oeuvre, this work differs from his usual treatment of the subject. Typically seen in groups scattered against monochrome backgrounds or in vast kaleidoscopic grids, Hirst rarely offers his viewers the opportunity to study a single butterfly in all its glory. ‘To Love’ is also unique in that the butterfly here is not life-sized but enlarged like a photograph from a science book. In doing so, the complex lines of the red and orange wings as well as the furs of its body become exceptionally clear.

Cast against a black background, the spiritual symbolism of the butterfly is revealed, nodding to its historical use by the Greeks to depict Psyche, the soul, and in Christian imagery to signify resurrection. For Hirst, the appeal of butterflies also stems from their unwavering display of colour and life. It is for these various conceptual and aesthetic reasons that butterflies have remained one of the artist’s most popular motifs.