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Monument to the Living and the Dead
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? Damien Hirst. All rights reserved, DACS 2009

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Monument to the Living and the Dead 2006

On Tour On tour at UK / WALSALL / THE NEW ART GALLERY

  • Artist Rooms
This large butterfly diptych was made specially for the ARTIST ROOMS collection. A diptych of two pieces of wood or metal containing the names of the living and the dead has been used, so that prayers and Masses can be said for their souls. Hirst has long been obsessed with butterflies as a metaphor for mortality. They are traditional symbols of the soul. In 1991 Hirst filled a London gallery with hundreds of live tropical butterflies, some of them growing from chrysalises on monochrome canvasses hung from the wall.

Glossary Open

Diptych

An artwork consisting of two components, often joined in the centre by a hinge.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which one thing stands for another. By extension, it is any representation that symbolically refers to something else.

Monochrome

An image made with a single colour.

Diptych, Metaphor, Monochrome

Details

  • Acc. No. AR00045
  • Medium Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
  • Size 213.40 x 213.40 x 3.00 cm (framed (each): 232.30 x 232.5 x 12.00 cm)
  • Credit ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008

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