Damien Hirst

This book was publsihed on the occasion of Damien Horst: the Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011, a single exhibition held simultaneously at eleven Gagosian gallery locations worldwise that brought together more than three hundred of Hirst's Spot paintings. 

Begining with the first Spot painting created in 1986, Hirst established the essential characteristics of what was to become his well-known series: hand-painted colored circles arrnage in a grid against a lgiht background. As the series evolveed, so too did the guidelines. The artist ensures that each spot was painting with household gloss on canvas, and that the gaps between the spots were the same width as the spots in order ot create what he called the "harmony of where color can exist on its own, interacting with other colors, in a perfect format." There are over 1,500 Spot paintings, from monumental canvases where no single color is ever repeated, to the most recent works, some of which comprise spots just 1 millimeter in diameter. 

This comprehensive volume features every Spot painting Hirst produced between 1986 and 2011, with over 99 percent of the works illustrated. The book is organized chronologically by year, and by classifications within each year. It features essays by Ann Temkin, Michael Bracewell, and Robert Pincus-Witten; a conversation between Hirst, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari; and a text by Hirst. Installation photography from the eleven galleries is also included, alongside a section of miscellaneous Spot works, such as the Spot Tate Boat and Spot Yamaha drum kit.