Sotheby's, London, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, 15–16 September 2008, lot 251, 
Private collection, Italy.

'You paint the walls white, and then life comes in and f**** it up. Like minimal paintings that have been f****d up by butterflies landing in paint.' - Damien Hirst

Shortly after graduating from Goldsmiths College, London, in 1989, Hirst began work on a series of paintings inspired by seeing flies get stuck on primed canvases in his Brixton studio. Taking this idea but wanting to create something beautiful, Hirst started fixing the bodies of butterflies to monochrome gloss-painted canvases. The choice of household gloss is integral to the works, intended by Hirst to 'look like an accident of paint with butterflies stuck on it.'

For the artist, the appeal of butterflies is created largely by the appearance of life they retain. The monochrome paintings are the earliest example of his use of the insects, which were to become one of his most recognisable motifs. The titles of these monochrome pieces allude to the colours of the canvases, evoking a realm of meaning that remains open to the viewer's interpretation. On the repeated appearance of butterflies in his work, the artist explains: 'I think rather than be personal you have to find universal triggers: everyone’s frightened of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks, everyone loves butterflies.'

Following the monochrome butterfly paintings, Hirst subsequently expanded the use of these insects in multicoloured pieces, or in works where the butterflies are arranged in specific patterns. This triptych incorporates bright colours with ambiguous titles for each panel, evoking an emotion or a concept associated with the hue of the paint.