Damien Hirst, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011

“I was always a colourist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of colour… I mean, I just move colour around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from – to create that structure to do those colours, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of colour.”
Damien Hirst

Something quite incredible is happening right now. The Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong are showing Damien Hirst’s spot paintings in all of their locations until 18 February 2012. 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 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 colour ever repeated.

To celebrate this, Paris store colette is selling merchandise from Damien Hirst’s own shop Other Criteria along with some other pieces such as this dress from the Art Freaks collaboration between Cynthia Rowley and artist Olaf Breuning.

Don’t miss your opportunity to see this show in your nearest location.