The Complete Psalm Paintings

Book excerpt: In 2008, Damien Hirst created a series of one hundred and fifty paintings, each titled after an Old Testament psalm, and made from butterfly wings and household gloss paint on canvas. The ‘Psalms’, in which iridescent butterfly wings combine to form kaleidoscopic patterns reminiscent of Gothic stained glass windows or Buddhist mandalas, were conceived nearly twenty years after the artist’s first use of the insect. Now one of his most recognisable motifs, the butterfly is here used to address some of Hirst’s most enduring themes: beauty, art, belief, life and death.00This stunning publication provides a comprehensive survey of the series. Each of the fully illustrated paintings is accompanied by the psalm from which its title derives, the biblical text rendered on images of individually selected colour marble samples. With the addition of a complete list of works and essays by writers Michael Bracewell and Amie Corry that investigate the historical and conceptual background to the works, ‘The Complete Psalm Paintings’ is an exquisite companion to one of Hirst’s most beautiful series.