Few contemporary artists provoke debate like Damien Hirst. Whether it’s a shark suspended in formaldehyde or a medicine cabinet arranged like a shrine, Hirst’s works consistently explore the themes of life, death, and the transience of beauty. But of all his motifs, none are more enduring — or more controversial — than the butterfly. So, why does Hirst use butterflies? The answer lies at the heart of his artistic philosophy. For Hirst, butterflies encapsulate the delicate tension between the eternal and the ephemeral, the sacred and the profane, the joy of life and the certainty of mortality.
The Butterfly as a Symbol of Transformation and Mortality
Throughout history, butterflies have symbolised metamorphosis, resurrection, and the soul. From ancient Greece to Christian iconography, the butterfly has embodied both the lightness of being and the journey of life through inevitable change and decay. Hirst taps directly into this symbolism. To him, butterflies are the perfect visual metaphor for life’s fragile beauty and its inescapable end. They emerge from the darkness of the chrysalis into a moment of dazzling colour, only to perish in a matter of days. Their brief, brilliant existence mirrors the human condition: fleeting yet extraordinary. In many interviews, Hirst has expressed his fascination with this duality. The butterflies are both “a symbol of life” and “a reminder of death,” capturing the tension that drives so much of his work.
Image: Damien Hirst's 'Memento 1', 2008
The Beauty of Stillness and the Question of Ethics
The physicality of Hirst’s butterfly works has sparked both admiration and outrage. Early in his career, Hirst famously released live butterflies into galleries for installations such as In and Out of Love (1991), where the insects were born, fluttered, and died under the gaze of the public. Later, he began using real butterfly wings embedded into paintings and panels, fixed into patterns of vibrant colour against monochrome backgrounds. For Hirst, these works are about preserving a moment of perfect beauty at the very brink of its disappearance. The stillness of the mounted butterflies freezes the delicate lifeform in time, turning what would have been a passing flicker into something permanent and contemplative. Critics have raised ethical concerns over the use of real butterflies, particularly in large numbers. Hirst has countered by suggesting that his intent was not cruelty, but to confront viewers with the reality of their own relationship to life, beauty, and decay. The works force a confrontation: can beauty exist without sacrifice?
Colour, Pattern, and Spirituality
Aesthetically, Hirst’s butterfly paintings are among his most mesmerising. The intricate arrangements evoke stained glass windows, recalling the grandeur of Gothic cathedrals and the spiritual awe of sacred spaces. His kaleidoscopic compositions create a sense of infinite variation within symmetry, much like the patterns found in nature itself. Inspired by the concept of the mandala—which in Buddhist and Hindu traditions represents the universe and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth—Hirst’s pieces offer spiritual reflection framed through the lens of contemporary art. The sheer brilliance of the colours and geometric perfection seduces the eye, even as the fragility of the materials reminds viewers of life’s impermanence.
In works such as The Souls series, each butterfly becomes a delicate building block in a larger tapestry of colour and light. Hirst uses this natural wonder to explore ideas of eternity, faith, and transcendence. The fragile wing of a butterfly, replicated and multiplied, transforms into a monumental celebration of life’s design.
So, why does Hirst use butterflies? Because in their brief lives and breathtaking beauty, they embody the very contradictions that define existence. They are at once ephemeral and eternal, joyous and tragic, perfect and imperfect. Hirst’s use of butterflies is not simply decorative. It is an invitation to contemplate what it means to be alive — to celebrate beauty even as we acknowledge its impermanence. In freezing the butterfly at the peak of its splendour, Hirst holds up a mirror to the viewer: this is life, fragile and precious, dazzling and doomed.
For those captivated by the paradoxical beauty of these works, discover our collection of Damien Hirst prints and butterfly editions and explore the artist’s powerful dialogue with life and mortality.
