Artketing: Damien Hirst Creates for Lalique

Lalique released a new collection in collaboration with Damien Hirst on January 23, riffing on the butterfly, a motif prized by both the French crystal maker and the British artist. Titled “Eternal,” the collection comprises 12 different colors of crystal panels, grouped into “Beauty”, “Love”, and “Hope”. Each color is available in a limited edition of 50 pieces, and each panel comes numbered and engraved with Hirst’s signature engraved on the bottom right-hand corner. The panels are designed to be displayed in a number of ways, including mounting on an easel; or framed and hung across a wall partition; or inset into a wall.

“René Lalique was both a remarkable craftsman and a bold artist who knew how to apply his expertise to the service of art. With Lalique entering a new phase of development and modernization, I decided to open up the crystal works to new artists, to offer a new perspective, new formal possibilities and renewed creative inspiration to some exceptional talents. A collaboration with Damien Hirst was high on the wish list,” said Silvio Denz, Chairman and CEO of Lalique, in a statement. “The butterfly [is] close to the hearts of René Lalique and Damien Hirst, who shared a sense of the magical and paradoxical beauty of the butterfly, ephemeral and eternal at the same time.”

For his part, Hirst said: “I love that the panels have an almost religious feel, they make you think of stained glass windows which I’ve always adored.”

He added: “I see butterflies as souls and part of a wider visual language. I’ve always described them as universal triggers; everyone loves them because of their incredible abstract fragility and beauty. It’s an interesting example of how we use nature to try and express the inexpressible: love, desire, belief and the eternal. Butterflies are used in Christian iconography to symbolize the resurrection, and by the ancient Greeks, for the soul. I’ve always loved that they look identical in life and in death, but when the light shines through these panels, it feels like they’re brought back to life in some way.”

as first published on BlouinArtinfo.com