Name: Deific
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst’s Deific (signed) is estimated to be worth between £15,000 and £22,000. This screenprint, created in 2013, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 6%. This work has an auction history of three total sales since its entry to the market in October 2014. Over the past 12 months, the average selling price was £16,000, across a total of 1 unit sold. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £13,600 to £13,600. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 50.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

October 2024

Phillips London

United Kingdom

March 2015

Christie's Hong Kong

Hong Kong

October 2014

Christie's Shanghai

China

Meaning & Analysis

Deific is a signed screen print in colours with glitter made by the critically acclaimed British artist, Damien Hirst. Produced in 2013, the print depicts a beautiful geometric pattern composed of butterflies on a square canvas. Blue and brown colours dominate the print, with splashes of red and white. The colours used in this print differ from the bold and vibrant yellows, greens and oranges that Hirst tends to privilege in his butterfly patterns.

Butterflies, along with skulls and diamonds, are one of the artist's most well-known motifs. Hirst’s most memorable use of butterflies was arguably in 1991, when the artist created a live installation which involved butterflies emerging from pupae attached to white painted canvases kept in a humid exhibition room. The artist also produced the Kaleidoscope paintings, which he started in 2001, in which he produced mesmerising patterns of concentric circles composed of butterfly wings, much like the pattern in Deific.

Hirst argues that butterflies embody the fragility of life due to the fact that they retain an iridescent beauty even in death, as evidenced in this print. The use of butterflies enables the artist to explore questions of life and death throughout his artworks, indeed for Hirst: “art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else.”