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Damien Hirst

The Veil Paintings

March 1–April 14, 2018
Beverly Hills

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018. Photo: Jeff McLane

Works Exhibited

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love Everlasting, 2017 Oil on canvas, 120 × 90 inches (304.8 × 228.6 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love Everlasting, 2017

Oil on canvas, 120 × 90 inches (304.8 × 228.6 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love’s Secrets, 2017 Oil on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love’s Secrets, 2017

Oil on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Unfolding Life, 2017 Oil on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Unfolding Life, 2017

Oil on canvas, 108 × 72 inches (274.3 × 182.9 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Logic, 2017 Oil on canvas, 66 × 45 inches (167.6 × 114.3 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Logic, 2017

Oil on canvas, 66 × 45 inches (167.6 × 114.3 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Faith, 2017 Oil on canvas, 144 × 108 inches (365.8 × 274.3 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Faith, 2017

Oil on canvas, 144 × 108 inches (365.8 × 274.3 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love's Pleasure, 2017 Oil on canvas, 120 × 96 inches (304.8 × 243.8 cm)© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

Damien Hirst, Veil of Love's Pleasure, 2017

Oil on canvas, 120 × 96 inches (304.8 × 243.8 cm)
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2018

About

A veil is a barrier, a curtain between two things, something that you can look at and pass through. It’s solid yet invisible and reveals and yet obscures the truth, the thing that we are searching for.
—Damien Hirst

Gagosian will present Damien Hirst’s latest series, The Veil Paintings, as the 2018 Oscars show, a much-anticipated annual fixture in the Los Angeles cultural calendar. Hirst’s last exhibition in Los Angeles was The Complete Spot Paintings in 2012.

Following Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, his highly ambitious sculpture exhibition at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice last year, Hirst was drawn towards the immediacy of painting and a return to the studio. This new series takes the Visual Candy paintings of the 1990s as a point of departure and embraces color and gestural painting on a large scale. Referencing both Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism, The Veil Paintings layer brushstrokes and bright dabs of heavy impasto, enveloping the viewer in vast fields of color.

Inspired partly by the Pointillist innovations of Georges Seurat and the post-Impressionist paintings of Pierre Bonnard, Hirst continues his examination of color and its effect on the eye in The Veil Paintings. While in the Spot Paintings and Medicine Cabinet series, his use of color was contained within the formality of the grid and the minimalist pharmaceutical packaging, here it is given free reign, with joyous results.