Damien Hirst H15-3 Michael For Sale

About this work

H15-3 Michael is a giclée print on archival fine art paper created by Damien Hirst in 2021, part of the H15 Archangels series. Sharing its panoramic format of 20½ by 56¾ inches with its companions in the series, Michael is named for the archangel most commonly depicted in Western tradition as the warrior champion — a figure of strength, protection, and decisive power. Within the Archangels series, this association lends the work a particular intensity, appropriate to the dynamism and force of Hirst's Cherry Blossoms paintings from which it is derived. The Cherry Blossoms compositions translate with particular power into the Archangels' horizontal, quadriptych format. The four sequential panels allow the viewer to experience the cascading blossom forms as they accumulate and intensify across the width of the print, building toward moments of chromatic density before opening again to the dark ground beneath. The name Michael carries associations of martial energy and decisive force, qualities that are not inconsistent with the expressive power of the underlying Cherry Blossoms paintings, which channel their lyrical subject matter through a technique of considerable physical authority. Damien Hirst is among the most celebrated artists of his generation, with a practice that has consistently engaged with fundamental questions of existence, mortality, and beauty. The Cherry Blossoms series — from which the H15 Archangels prints are drawn — represents an important chapter in this ongoing engagement, offering a meditation on natural beauty and transience that draws on both Western and Eastern aesthetic traditions. H15-3 Michael, as a print from this significant series, represents an important opportunity to acquire a major work by one of the defining artists of the contemporary period.