Honour, 2021

About the Edition

Honor H9-6 is from ‘The Virtues’, a continuation of Hirst’s Cherry Blossom series. Each print is named after one of The Eight Virtues of Bushidō - Justice, Courage, Mercy, Politeness, Honesty, Honour, Loyalty, and Control. Hirst has been fascinated by cherry blossoms since watching his mother paint the subject when he was a child. He devoted two years to working on this series, which saw him take on a much more painterly approach, referencing Impressionism, Pointillism, and Action Painting. Damien Hirst said “Cherry Blossoms are about beauty and life and death. They’re extreme – there’s something hopeful yet hopeless about them. They’re art but taken from nature. They’re about desire and how we process love and why we need it, but also these prints are about the momentary, the insane transience of beauty – a tree in full crazy blossom against a clear blue sky. How can you argue with that? It’s been so good to make these prints, to be completely lost in colour for a while. Blossoms are optimistic and bright yet fragile, just like we are and I hope that The Virtues can remind us to always try and get the most from life.”