Our cover this month, Elation by Damian Hirst, sold for $52,500 at Sotheby’s Contemporary Prints & Multiples auction on July 28, 2020 in New York City. The butterfly motif features frequently in Hirst’s work, and most recently he’s used it for a great cause—after schoolchildren in England began hanging up rainbow drawings as a sign of hope during these trying times, Hirst designed his own butterfly print rainbow to auction off with all profits benefiting England’s National Health Service.
To Hirst, who’s been fascinated by mortality since a young age, butterflies symbolize death and resurrection. His works have controversially featured actual dead subjects, including a shark preserved in formaldehyde solution and a sliced-up cow and bull, which the New York City Department of Health famously banned him from exhibiting in 1995. Despite the critics, Hirst has emerged as one of the richest and most successful artists of our time.
Here’s hoping that Hirst’s butterflies featured on our cover are a manifestation of a forthcoming “resurrection” of our economy (not to mention our health and safety). In the meantime, our Investments Committee Report this month helps shed some light on what the road to economic recovery may look like.