Page 94 - B-ALL#38 ENGLISH

The colors of the petals are intense, almost violent. For some paintings he used the full range of reds, pinks and whites with hints of yellow, orange, dark blue. On the other hand, for others the colors are imbued with great tenderness. This accumulation of spots evokes impressionism or pointillism in this idea of accounting not for reality but for what it provokes in viewers.
Damien Hirst moves away from the minimalism of sculpture to focus on the spontaneity of the pictorial gesture.
This solitary work in the color studio had started for him with his «Spots Painting», circles of colors always the same size but never repeating the same shade once.In contrast in «Veil Paintings», the tones overlapped in thick serifs or scattered dots with overflows and smudges.
The theme of life and death is omnipresent in Damien Hirst’s creativity, but it is treated here with a joyful irony in a veritable jubilant explosion.
Flowers embody this fleeting beauty of spring, destined to disappear to give way to fruits at the onset of summer in a ballet as eternal as it is ephemeral of nature.
These «Cherry Blossoms» offer an exhilarating bath of petals in which to immerse your soul to draw strength, a breath beyond these flowering trees of life and dreams.
«Life is a cherry. Death is a nucleus. Love a cherry tree.»
Jacques Prévert «Song of the Month of May“ 1946 Cherry Blossoms - Damien Hirst
Cartier Foundation - Paris www.fondationcartier.com
Fantasia Blossom, 2018
Private collection
Oil on canvas
274 × 183 cm | 108 × 72 in
© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.
All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates.