Damien Hirst

White Cube, London
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2004

"The black of Hirst's paintings is built up out of hundreds of thousands of dead flies, which create a dense and unfathomable surface, like an absorbent void - a dateless night....They speak of fear before dying as an existentialist dread in the face of voiceless death, an anxiety not easily quelled even by the promise of communion through love, since there are some things that have to be gaced along - death is the ultimate individualator." (Annushka Shani, "Romance in the Age of Uncertainty," from Exh. Cat., London, White Cube, Romance in the Age of Uncertainty, 2003, p. 10)