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Damien Hirst

The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011

January 12–March 16, 2012
Rome

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012. Photo: Matteo Piazza

Works Exhibited

Damien Hirst, Ethyl Laurate, 2003 Household gloss on canvas, 59 × 59 inches (149.9 × 149.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012

Damien Hirst, Ethyl Laurate, 2003

Household gloss on canvas, 59 × 59 inches (149.9 × 149.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012

Damien Hirst, Phe-Tyr, 2004–11 Household gloss on canvas, 140 × 156 inches (355.6 × 396.2 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012

Damien Hirst, Phe-Tyr, 2004–11

Household gloss on canvas, 140 × 156 inches (355.6 × 396.2 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012

About

I was always a colorist. I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color. . . . I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the Spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.
—Damien Hirst

Gagosian is pleased to present The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 by Damien Hirst.

The exhibition will take place at once across all of Gagosian’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012. Most of the paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions, with more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries. Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 makes use of this demographic fact to determine the content of each exhibition according to locality.

Included in the exhibition are more than three hundred paintings, including the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; the smallest Spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring less than a square inch (1996); a monumental work comprising only four spots, each sixty inches in diameter; and the most recent Spot painting (completed in 2011), containing 25,781 spots that are each one millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.

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Sono da sempre un colorista, ho sempre amato profondamente il colore. . . . voglio dire, lascio che il colore faccia il suo corso. Ecco quindi da dove nascono gli spot paintings – comporre la struttura che crea quei colori, e poi non pensarci più. Improvvisamente ho ottenuto ciò che volevo. Era semplicemente un modo per immortalare la gioia del colore.
—Damien Hirst

Gagosian è lieta di annunciare la mostra The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 di Damien Hirst.

La mostra verrà presentata simultaneamente in tutte e undici le gallerie Gagosian nel mondo nelle sedi di New York, Londra, Parigi, Los Angeles, Roma, Atene, Ginevra, Hong Kong, con un’unica data inaugurale, il 12 gennaio 2012. La maggior parte dei dipinti in mostra fanno parte di collezioni pubbliche e private, per un totale di oltre 150 prestatori provenienti da venti Nazioni. The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011,  concepita come un’unica mostra presentata su location diverse, utilizza il fattore demografico per determinare il suo specifico contenuto a seconda della posizione geografica.

La mostra comprende oltre 300 dipinti, dal primo spot su tavola realizzato da Hirst nel 1986, al più piccolo Spot painting, realizzato nel 1996, che presenta la metà di uno spot di 2.55 × 1.27 centimetri; ai lavori monumentali composti da quattro spot, ognuno di 152.40 centimentri di diametro; fino al più recente spot painting, completato nel 2011, con ben 25,781 spot di un solo millimetro di diametro, i cui colori non sono mai ripetuti.

In occasione della mostra sarà pubblicato The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011, un catalogo interamente illustrato, che rappresenterà un importante e definitivo riferimento per tutti gli Spot painting realizzati da Hirst dal 1986 fino ad oggi. Pubblicato da Gagosian e dalla casa editrice Other Criteria, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 comprenderà saggi di Ann Temkin, curatore del Museum of Modern Art, New York, del critico Michael Bracewell, e dello storico dell’arte Robert Pincus-Witten, oltre ad includere una conversazione tra Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha e John Baldessari.

La terza edizione dell’applicazione Gagosian per Ipad sarà inoltre presentata a gennaio 2012; con oltre novanta Spot painting, darà ai fruitori la possibilità di interagire con la serie e analizzarla nel dettaglio.

Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 precede la prima importante retrospettiva sull’opera di Hirst, che sarà inaugurata presso la Tate Modern di Londra in aprile 2012.