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JUDGEMENT DAY/ATONEMENT
i. flies and resin on canvas
ii. butterfly wings and household gloss on canvas
each: 213.4 by 213.4cm.; 84 by 84in.
overall: 213.4 by 426.8cm.; 84 by 168in.
Executed in 2004-05.

PROVENANCE
White Cube, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2005

Hirst’s oeuvre has always been dominated by references to Death, Mortality and Religion. The visual language of Judgement Day/Atonement is the perfect example of such narrative. Manifested by the use of butterflies and flies, the present work articulates a grand existential allegory for life and death.

The role of flies in this monochromic masterwork symbolise a metaphor for the cycle of life and as such is the embodiment of Hirst’s obsession with death. As Damien explained,: “I think it was Thomas Hobbes who said people are like flies, like the cycle of a fly is like your own life. When you make that connection with the paintings… it is like all the people in the world who die in a hundred years. That amount of death is pretty black” (Damien Hirst interviewed by Mirta D’Argenzio in: Exhibition Catalogue, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Damien Hirst: The Agony and the Ecstasy Selected Works from 1989-2004, 2004-05, p. 94).

To the contrary of the vivid black image of death and decay, the neighbouring canvas represents delicate and fragile expression of the beauty of life. Vivid and kaleidoscopic, the fragmented composition of butterfly bestow, carefully arranged to reference the spiritual symbolism of the butterfly. In Christian Imagery, utilised by Renaissance masters butterfly would often signify the resurrection.

According to the Christian Doctrine, the dead will rise and their souls will finally be judged and consigned to heaven or hell. In Judgement Day/Atonement, Hirst references this iconographic theme. The illuminating, ethereal butterflies juxtaposed against an unnerving mausoleum of flies indicate righteous souls sitting on the right-hand side of Christ being conducted towards heaven, while on the left sinners are driven towards eternal suffering.

In the present work the two separate canvases join together to form a cohesive representation of death and resurrection. For Hirst, “each part of a pair has its own life, independent of the other, but they live together” (Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2002, p.131).

For Stellar, the relevance of this narrative is even more poignant in today’s current climate, with the Circle of Life and the idea of Rebirth integral to today’s circumstances; we can only hope that the Post Covid Art World will have a resurrection and a new start.

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Mother Teresa first appeared in M.F. Husain’s paintings in 1980. After winning both the Noble Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest national service award in 1980, Husain’s fascination with her strong public image, character, and profound influence on the artist’s life and work has been demonstrated by the numerous canvases dedicated to her since then.

The artist recalls:

“I have tried to capture in my paintings what her presence meant to the destitute and the dying, the light and hope she brought by mere inquiry, by putting her hand over a child abandoned in a street.”

(M. F. Husain quoted in Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New York, 2001, p. 116).

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Keith Haring was best remembered for his flowing, classic line-drawings of human beings, barking dogs and smiling babies. Complex surface patterns and surprising combinations of colours intrigued Haring. As he aged, his imagery became more complex, but his use of simple, emblematic visual language remained throughout his career. Haring employed the best qualities of colour. The juxtaposition of opposing warm and cool colours creates vibrancy on the surface of the work, but the patterns engage the eye and promote awareness as well.

Many different visual styles and movements have impacted Haring’s artistic narratives. His study of semiotics led to the development of his “signs,” a distillation of his basic visual vocabulary. However, what we see here is a perfect example of complex works influenced by Aztec, Mayan, North African and Aboriginal cultures.

“Untitled” is the perfect example of Haring’s inimitable talent for expressing pulsating movement through forms distilled to their most fundamental components.

Haring’s reassuring hand draws bold, confident strokes, resisting a spontaneous genius’ pre-meditated schematic plan; never erasing or reworking, Haring’s virtuosic gestural ingenuity flows directly on to the surface.

Unmistakably, the mask is charged by the wild and energetic line-work, the present work expresses an infectious vitality and joy.

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Sitting Couple on Bench is a piece that epitomises Lynn Chadwick’s work as he explored male and female figures. With triangle heads for the female and rectangular heads for male, it demonstrates the generic motifs apparent across decades of his working output. Welded stainless steel techniques create very smooth sheets and planes, angles, triangles, and different shapes which give the sculpture a pensive quality. An unsaid tension between the figures is generated through their motionless and static manifestation.

Conceived in 1990, Sitting Couple on Bench is a ground-breaking creation from Chadwick as he entered a new vein of inspiration and innovation, primarily prompted by his rediscovered use of welded steel as a medium.

Sitting Couple on Bench sculpture has a twin that was cast in bronze, but is based on this same titled welded steel originally made in 1990, just two years after Chadwick turned to this medium. With the twin, the vibrant surface of the stainless steel that had first caught Chadwick’s attention when he saw a sculpture made of that material in Miami has been replaced by a more complex, textured bronze patina. Chadwick himself recognized that bronze was basically the standard medium for metal sculptures; here, while retaining the crisp linearity that underpinned the welded steel version, he sought to explore its flexibility. In this way, Chadwick has created a sculpture that, while superficially conveying some adherence to the canon of sculpture throughout the ages, he taps into a visual vocabulary that extends back to and beyond the ancient Greeks, nevertheless introducing a searing sense of modernity.

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