Damien Hirst was born in Bristol, UK, in 1965. In 1986,

he enrolled at Goldsmiths, University of London, to

pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and graduated

in 1989. During his time at Goldsmiths, Hirst began

to gain prominence, conceiving and organizing an

exhibition called "Freeze," which he co-exhibited

with fellow students. He then became a key member of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement,

which significantly influenced the development of

contemporary British art in the 1990s. In 1995, Hirst

was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize.

In 1991, Damien Hirst's first solo exhibition, In and

Out of Love, was showcased across two floors of the

Woodstock Street Gallery in London. The exhibition

featured a room filled with chrysalises from which

butterflies emerged, along with an installation titled

Butterfly Paintings and Ashtrays. Thirty years later,

in 2021, the Yale Center for British Art recreated a

smaller-scale version of the original exhibition setting.

The theme of "butterflies" has been a constant

throughout Hirst's artistic career. Utilizing butterflies

as his primary medium, Hirst's five-meter-tall piece

Eternity set a record in 2007 for the highest auction



price of the artist's two-

dimensional works. His art



delves into core themes such

as love and death, beauty and

desire, the contrast between

pain and eternity, symbolism

and reality, and the intersection

of life and art.

In Greek, "Psyche" carries

both meanings of "soul

” and

"butterfly" It symbolizes Man's

spirit; on the other hand, the

term "butterfly



” itself carries

the double significance of "transfromation" and "new

life" symbolizing love in terms of art. To become a

beautiful butterfly, one must undergo a process of

transfromation and only death leads to the beginning

of new life.

The artist, Hirst, used the symbolic meaning of

butterflies as a metaphor for the transience and

impermanence of life and love. Once shot by Cupid's

arrows, they fall into the sweet traps of paint, which

is tantamount to being willing captives for the

attainment of a lasting and meaningful art. In English,

the word "Lovely" means cute and is mostly used in

describing women. "Kind" though normally means

merciful and is mostly used to describe men. Hirst is

once again seen here to be playing a game of words

that is filled with incisive wit.