The Virtues - Honesty

This is a stunning laminated giclée on aluminium composite panel, hand signed and numbered by Damien Hirst on the label on the back. Honesty is a limited edition of 728 works.

The Virtues by Damien Hirst turn around two concepts, the spontaneous yet impermanent, represented by these cherry blossoms, reference of Pointillism, Impressionism and Action Painting, and the Bushidō's Eight Virtues as explicated by Nitobe Inazō back in 1900.

Considered as the national Japan flower, cherry blossoms symbolize clouds not only because of their nature of blooming en masse, but also because each bloom is unique and extraordinary. They are a metaphor of the impermanent and brief nature of life. This concept of the ephemeral is associated the mono no aware, which makes reference to the ability to feel and understand the transitory of things. It is a Japanese term that understands the sweet and sour feeling of seeing things change. What else could reflect this concept better than a cherry blossom?

With all my sincere regard for the high commercial integrity of the Anglo-Saxon race, when I ask for the ultimate ground, I am told that "Honesty is the best policy", that it pays to be honest. Is not this virtue, then, its own reward? - "Bushidō: The Soul of Japan", Nitobe Inazō.