Name: Lauric Acid Butyl Ester
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 4.9 (228 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst's Lauric Acid Butyl Ester (signed) is estimated to be worth between £5,000 and £7,500. This woodcut artwork, created in 2011, has an auction history of one sale on 8th December 2017. There have been no sales in the last 12 months or the last five years. This is a rare artwork with an auction history and an annual average growth rate of 6%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 55.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

December 2017

Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany

Lauric Acid Butyl Ester - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

Lauric Acid Butyl Ester is a woodcut print from Damien Hirst’s 40 Woodcut Spots series from 2011. The landscape-oriented print shows four rows of five spots that are identical in size and shape, each depicting a different colour. The 40 Woodcut Spots series is an exploration of colour and form that is distinctly Hirstian.

The titles of each print in this series are based on names of chemical compounds, and indicate Hirst’s interest in investigating boundaries between science, aesthetics, medicine and art. The colourful spots are set in equal distance from one another in a formulaic composition. The white clinical backdrop of the print recalls a laboratory and its kit, alluding to the crispness of coats, benches and hospital walls. Moreover, in its depiction of many spots, this print appears like a packet of medical pills.

There is an incessant endlessness to the 40 Woodcut Spots series. The circles are printed in flat, block hues and no colour is repeated twice on the same canvas. Hirst in 2000 remarked on the impact of an installation of multiple spot paintings, “it’s an assault on your senses. They grab hold of you and give you a good shaking. As adults, we’re not used to it. It’s an amazing fact that all objects leap beyond their own dimension.”