Even In The Grave Not All Is Lost Hot on Sale

Even In The Grave Not All Is Lost is a limited edition screen print by contemporary artist Magnus Gjoen. The piece depicts a human skull, emblazoned with baroque flowers in a dark and dusty colour palette. Gjoen adds tiny butterflies, which hover at the edges of the skull, teasing the boundary line for a trompe-l’oeil effect.

Formerly a shoe designer for Vivienne Westwood, Gjoen is known for bringing subversive style to every one of his print works. Blending the past with the present, the magnificent with the macabre, life with death, Gjoen’s prints are dark, unsettling, and beguilingly beautiful.

The skull—one of Gjoen’s favourite motifs—makes for a modern-day memento mori: that age-old artistic tradition of depicting skulls and skeletons to symbolise human mortality. Here, death is juxtaposed against life in the fluttering of a butterfly’s wing and the blossoming of a single petal, to celebrate the beautiful fragility of being alive.

From a 2019 timed release, the print is from a limited edition of 142 and is signed and numbered by the artist.