Damien Hirst Picks Up The Brush For New Works

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Aug 2nd 2009 at 6:01PM

Artist Damien Hirst is known for many things, animals suspended in formaldehyde, a skull covered in diamonds, but one thing he is not known for is working alone. Hirst has employed teams of assistants for years to help him work on his pieces. But Hirst has gone back to basics for his series called 'The Blue Paintings." Done between 2006 and 2008, the 25 paintings mark Hirst's return to solo brush on canvas action. Only for an artist like Hirst would working alone actually be considered newsworthy, for him, it's practically a stunt.

The paintings will be exhibited at The Wallace Collection, a national museum in an historic London town house. Hirsts's new works will be surrounded by Old Master paintings in small rooms with silk-covered walls and gilded cornices. Very few living artists have shown their work at The Wallace Collection. Hirst says he chose to exhibit his works there because his new works "feel like they belong here with other works and objects from other times." The exhibition will open in October.

Tags: art, damien hirst, DamienHirst, wallace collection, WallaceCollection

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jonathan_polkest Aug 4th 2009 12:36PM

I assume I have seen an image of one of the intended new paintings to be exhibited, strangely reminiscent of late great Australian painter Brett Whiteley's work - I thought that Lucien Freud had exhibited within the Wallace Collection but if Mr Hirst is the first is it not a wonder that work has not been shown there before ?
Perhaps a stipend persuaded but I hope the Wallace Collection Gallery will do this again for any such art that contrasts or enhances the collection since the accretion of canvases depicting dying game and various old fruits would enhance most of what you care to hang alongside it.

aboldizar Oct 5th 2009 2:30PM

This extensive interview with Hirst in Bali opens several conversations on his blue paintings, money, power, death, and the nature of visual language. Read it at http://www.boldizar.com/blog/nonfiction/damien-hirst-new-paintings-interview/

aboldizar Oct 5th 2009 2:47PM

This extensive interview with Hirst in Bali opens several conversations on his blue paintings, money, power, death, and the nature of visual language: http://www.boldizar.com/blog/nonfiction/damien-hirst-new-paintings-interview/