Publisher's Synopsis
The first and most significant documentation of Damien Hirst's iconographic spot paintings documented in this comprehensive publication spanning the years 1986-2011. Every spot painting Hirst has produced is included in this substantial publication with over 99% of them illustrated.The Complete Spot Paintings includes essays by Museum of Modern Art curator Ann Tempkin, cultural critic Michael Bracewell and art historian Robert Pincus-Witten as well as a conversation between Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari. Hirst has said, "I started them as an endless series like a sculptural idea of a painter (myself). A scientific approach to painting in a similar way to the drug companies scientific approach to life. Art doesn't purport to have all the answers; drug companies do. Hence the individual titles themselves: Acetaldehyde (1991), Albumin Human Glycated (1992), Androstanolone (1993), Arabinitol (1994), etc. . . .In the spot paintings the grid-like structure creates the beginningof the system. On each painting no two colours are the same.This ends the system; it's a simple system. No matter how I feel as an artist or painter, the paintings end up looking happy. I can still make all the emotional decisions about colour that I need to as an artist, but in the end they are lost. The end of painting. And I'm still painting; am I a painter? Or a sculptor who paints? Or justan artist? I don't know. It's not important. But it is very important that there is an endless series or enough to imply an endless series. In January 2012 the Gagosian Gallery hosted 'The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011,' which saw an extensive selection of Hirst's Spot Paintings shown in all 11 locations of the Gagosian Gallery including New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong.The same year Tate Modern, London exhibited the most comprehensive survey of Hirst's work to be held in the UK to date. In 2013 the artist held his largest retrospective so far in Doha, Qatar, curated by Francesco Bonami. Hirst lives and works in London, Gloucestershire and Devon.
