Something you should see… Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011

Laura Thornley — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:00:38 +0000

Usually, there is nothing that chills me to the bone more than the words, ‘Damien Hirst‘ and ‘spot painting’ in the same sentence. I spent some time at his auction exhibition at Sothebys back in 2008 and was exposed to the pomp and circumstance that surrounds anything the enigmatic artist creates. HOWEVER, like all good car crashes, you know you are going to want to take a look at this, and actually, we think it’s quite impressive.

In the usual, ‘I don’t do things by halves’ way, the exhibition is running.. wait for it… across all 11 Gagosian Galleries worldwide. Simultaneously. That’s over three continents at least. (And would probably make for an amazing art world trip, if you had the time, money and inclination – which actually only Damien Hirst has in these tight-belt times). The variety of ‘spots’ on show is quite astounding, over 300 in total, ranging from the first spot in 1986, the smallest spot 1×1/2 inch and a more recent addition with 25,781 spots each of only 1 millimetre and with no colour repeated! And of course there is always a bit of Hirst humour to boot. It’s a good precursor to the major event, his retrospective at the Tate opening in April – so go and take a look, we know you can’t resist! (Words: Laura Thornley)

The Complete Spot Paintings 1986 – 2011 opens on January 12th worldwide. For details of the London exhibitions on Britannia Street and Davies Street, click here.

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spot paintings – The Cultural Exposé

Something you should see… Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011