The Virtues, H9-3 Mercy

Damien Hirst’s ‘Mercy’ evokes the artist’s characterisation of his ‘Cherry Blossoms’ (2018-20) painting series as “garish, messy and fragile”. The third work from his ‘The Virtues’ (H9, 2021) print series, ‘Mercy’ is named for the tender third virtue of Bushidō, the Samurai code of ethics. As described by Nitobe Inazō, Mercy is “the feeling of distress, love, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity”.

Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol and grew up in Leeds. In 1984 he moved to London, where he worked in construction before studying for a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college from 1986 to 1989. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995.

Since the late 1980’s, Hirst has used a varied practise of installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life and death. Explaining: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else,” Hirst’s work investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems, and dissects th…