NEW YORK (AP) – An exhibition featuring hundreds of British artist Damien Hirst’s color spot paintings is opening simultaneously at Gagosian Gallery’s 11 locations around the world.
“The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011,” opening today, is the first time that the art gallery has decided to feature the work of one artist at all its galleries at the same time.
A total of more than 300 spot paintings will be featured at the various locations: three galleries in New York, two in London and one each in Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Athens and Geneva. The exhibition runs through Feb. 10.
The gallery held a media preview on Wednesday in New York where the artist posed for cameras but did not speak.
It said most of the spot paintings are on loan from private collections and institutions.
The conceptual artist, whose best-known pieces include an actual tiger shark carcass suspended in formaldehyde, created his first spot canvas in 1986. A recent monumental work contains 25,781 spots, each only 1 millimeter in diameter with no single color repeated.
Hirst has created only a small number of the canvasses himself. He has said his assistants do a better painting job than he could and that he becomes easily bored.
The gallery said people who visit all 11 locations during the exhibition will receive a signed spot print by Hirst.
His other works include a human skull with more than 8,000 diamonds and a series of small medicine and pill cabinets.
A 20-year retrospective of his work is scheduled to open at Tate Modern in London on April 4.
Hirst was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 1995.
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Online: http://www.gagosian.com
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