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Gagosian Gallery is presenting “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” by Damien Hirst. The exhibition will take place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012.
Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.
Although at first glance the paintings might look a great deal alike -- apart from the size of the dots -- they are distinguished by never having the same color repeated on any one canvas. In some works the dots are the size of a full stop and in others the size of a large wheel.
Hirst himself readily admits that he has painted very few of the works bearing his name. Assistants execute nearly every one of the neat, meticulously arranged circles.
Gagosian kept this controversial aspect of Hirst's output quiet, saying in its media kit only that "having made the first five spot paintings himself, Hirst then handed over the actual making of the works to assistants -- the act of art-making lay in their concept."
Fellow British painter David Hockney this month made a barbed critique of the practice, saying it was "a little insulting to craftsmen, skillful craftsmen."
Hockney quoted a traditional Chinese saying, that to paint "you need the eye, the hand and the heart. Two won't do."
However the practice of an Andy Warhol-style "factory" is not unusual through art history and Hirst himself has joked in interviews that he himself found the meticulous technique required boring.
Hirst's star has dimmed somewhat, but the Gagosian show and an upcoming major retrospective at the Tate Modern in London this April will be a opportunity to redress that. – source AFP

Publié le 12.01.2012