Damien Hirst Psalm For Sale

Damien Hirst: Psalm Series

Market Authority & Performance

Guy Hepner has completed $4,226,125 in Damien Hirst transactions, establishing definitive expertise in navigating the artist's complex and dynamic market. As one of the most commercially significant artists of the contemporary era, Hirst commands a collecting landscape shaped by institutional demand, auction house strategy, and the enduring legacy of the Young British Artists movement. According to the Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report 2025, the global art market reached $57.5 billion in 2024, with subsequent analysis in their 2026 report confirming a return to growth in 2025—a trajectory that has reinforced collector confidence in blue-chip contemporary artists. Within this environment, Hirst's print editions occupy a strategic position: they offer entry into the artist's conceptual universe at accessible price points while maintaining the material distinction and visual impact that define his broader practice.

The Psalm series exemplifies this intersection of accessibility and artistic gravitas. Produced between 2009 and 2015, these works extend Hirst's meditation on mortality, belief, and the pharmaceutical promise of salvation—themes that have anchored his market dominance since the 1990s. Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams have consistently featured Hirst's editions in contemporary print sales, where demand reflects both the artist's auction history and the enduring collectibility of works authenticated through Science Ltd.

Series Context & Conceptual Framework

The Psalm series draws its titles from the Book of Psalms, the ancient Hebrew poetry of praise, lamentation, and supplication that has shaped Western spiritual discourse for millennia. Hirst's appropriation of these sacred texts is characteristically subversive: rather than illustrating religious devotion, the works transform pharmaceutical imagery into contemporary altarpieces. Each print presents arrangements of pills, tablets, and capsules rendered with clinical precision, their vibrant colors and symmetrical compositions suggesting both the promise of chemical salvation and the seductive aesthetics of consumer culture.

This conceptual territory emerged from Hirst's iconic Pharmacy installations and Medicine Cabinets, works that established his reputation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Psalm prints translate these spatial investigations into two-dimensional meditations, maintaining the tension between scientific rationalism and spiritual longing that has defined Hirst's intellectual project. By invoking Latin psalm titles—Benedictus Dominus, Confitebor Tibi, Domine Ne in Furore—the artist positions pharmaceuticals as contemporary sacraments, objects of faith for a secular age seeking transcendence through chemistry rather than theology.

The series also reflects Hirst's career-long interrogation of beauty's relationship to death. Just as his butterfly paintings and spot canvases employ systematic arrangements to create visual pleasure, the Psalm prints seduce viewers through color, pattern, and surface while embedding references to human vulnerability and the pharmaceutical industry's commodification of health.

Technical Specifications & Production

The Psalm series demonstrates Hirst's sophisticated approach to printmaking, employing silkscreen techniques that translate the hyperreal quality of his painted works into editioned multiples. Several prints incorporate diamond dust—a material innovation that adds dimensional luminosity and physical presence to the flat picture plane. This technique, pioneered in fine art printmaking and employed by artists including Andy Warhol, transforms the viewing experience: as light shifts across the surface, the crushed diamonds create subtle sparkle that enhances the jewel-like quality of the depicted pills.

Works within the series include Psalm: Benedictus Dominus (2009), a silkscreen with diamond dust; Psalm: Confitebor Tibi (2009), a silkscreen edition; Psalm: Domine, Ne in Furore (2010), a screenprint with diamond dust; Psalm: Ad Te, Domine, Levavi (2009), a screenprint in colors with diamond dust; Psalm: Benedicam Domino (2015), a silkscreen with glaze; Psalm: Quare Fremuerunt Gentes (2009), a screenprint; and Psalm: Domini est Terra (2010), a screenprint with diamond dust.

Authentication for all Damien Hirst works is provided exclusively through Science Ltd, the artist's studio and administrative entity. This centralized verification system, combined with comprehensive edition documentation, provides collectors with essential provenance assurance—a critical factor as the secondary market for Hirst prints continues to mature.

Investment Analysis

Damien Hirst's auction history provides essential context for understanding the Psalm series' market position. The 2008 Sotheby's sale "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever" generated $198 million in total proceeds—an unprecedented single-artist auction that occurred during the financial crisis and demonstrated Hirst's capacity to command collector attention regardless of broader economic conditions. His Lullaby Spring achieved $19.2 million at Sotheby's in 2007, establishing a benchmark for his sculptural pharmaceutical works that continues to inform market perception across all media.

The print market operates according to distinct dynamics, with collectors prioritizing condition, edition position, and material distinction. Within the Psalm series, diamond dust variants command premium positioning due to their enhanced visual presence and material specificity. As Hirst's representation by White Cube ensures continued institutional support and exhibition programming, the editions benefit from sustained curatorial attention that reinforces their art historical significance.

Acquisition Through Guy Hepner

Guy Hepner provides collectors with privileged access to Damien Hirst's Psalm series through established relationships with institutional sources and private collections. Our New York team offers comprehensive acquisition services, from initial consultation through authentication verification, shipping coordination, and installation support. Contact Guy Hepner to discuss available works and current market positioning for this essential body of contemporary prints.