Untitled (2001), a large-scale butterfly painting, exemplifies this tension: real butterfly wings embedded in glossy household paint, their iridescent fragility preserved yet immobilized. The composition radiates color and elegance, yet beneath the surface lies the stark finality of life stilled. The butterflies, long a recurring motif in his practice, symbolize transformation, impermanence, and spiritual fragility. The artist once stated “I love butterflies because when they are dead they look alive.” The work transforms the traditional still life into a conceptual meditation on nature, control, and the human desire to arrest time.

This work echoes Damien Hirst’s inaugural heart-shaped butterfly painting — created in 1996 and once held in the Saatchi Collection, it was famously reproduced on T-shirts for the opening of the Saatchi Gallery’s second space at County Hall. Hirst pursued the motif in other palettes, such as red and yellow, but large pink hearts of this type remain scarce. Unlike Hirst’s later proliferation of the image through widely distributed editioned prints, this piece is unique, aligning it more closely with the rarity and immediacy of the early paintings.

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