Damien Hirst: Colour Space
The Complete Works Published by Heni Publishing.
Introduction by Ann Gallagher. The series of recent Colour Space paintings by Damien Hirst (born 1965) have deep roots in Hirst's practice, relating to his Spot Paintings, a series begun by the artist in 1986, during his first year as a student at Goldsmiths. Conceived in 2016, Colour Space serves as a response to the iconic Spot Painting series. Where the Spot Paintings are painstakingly rigorous in their formulaic grid structure, intended to look as if they'd been made "by a person trying to paint like a machine," the Colour Space series is looser and more painterly, featuring informal drips and splashes of paint. Both series, however, share a system—no two colors repeat within a single canvas. The Spot Paintings were always conceived of as an ongoing project (1,365 and counting), but Colour Space is a finite series, consisting of more than 260 works painted with household gloss paint on canvas. These paintings are then subcategorized by spot size: 6 mm, 10 mm, 25 mm, 75 mm and 100 mm; with a selection executed on a black background. Each painting is fully illustrated in this publication, alongside artwork details and an introductory essay by Ann Gallagher, director of collections at Tate.
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