Artist: Damien Hirst
Artwork: Wu Zetian (H10-1)
Series: The Empresses
Year: 2021
Medium: Laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite, screen-printed with glitter
Artwork Size: 100 × 100 cm
Hand Signed: Signed and numbered on label
Wu Zetian (H10-1) forms part of Damien Hirst’s celebrated series The Empresses, a collection of five works named after powerful and influential female rulers from history.
The work takes its name from Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right. Her extraordinary rise to power and enduring historical legacy provide a fitting reference for a series centred on female authority, strength and influence.
Hirst constructs the composition using his iconic butterfly motif, arranging butterfly wings into an intricate, perfectly symmetrical pattern. The resulting image has an almost kaleidoscopic quality, combining intense colour and elaborate detail with the underlying themes of beauty, transformation, life and mortality that have long characterised his practice.
The screen-printed glitter adds luminosity and physical depth to the surface, catching and reflecting light as the viewer moves around the work and intensifying the jewel-like quality of the butterfly composition.
Wu Zetian (H10-1) is produced as a laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite with screen-printed glitter and measures 100 × 100 cm.
Signed and numbered on the label.
Artist: Damien Hirst
Artwork: Wu Zetian (H10-1)
Series: The Empresses
Year: 2021
Medium: Laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite, screen-printed with glitter
Artwork Size: 100 × 100 cm
Hand Signed: Signed and numbered on label
Wu Zetian (H10-1) forms part of Damien Hirst’s celebrated series The Empresses, a collection of five works named after powerful and influential female rulers from history.
The work takes its name from Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right. Her extraordinary rise to power and enduring historical legacy provide a fitting reference for a series centred on female authority, strength and influence.
Hirst constructs the composition using his iconic butterfly motif, arranging butterfly wings into an intricate, perfectly symmetrical pattern. The resulting image has an almost kaleidoscopic quality, combining intense colour and elaborate detail with the underlying themes of beauty, transformation, life and mortality that have long characterised his practice.
The screen-printed glitter adds luminosity and physical depth to the surface, catching and reflecting light as the viewer moves around the work and intensifying the jewel-like quality of the butterfly composition.
Wu Zetian (H10-1) is produced as a laminated Giclée print on aluminium composite with screen-printed glitter and measures 100 × 100 cm.
Signed and numbered on the label.
