H5-6 Plaza
H5-6 Plaza
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
Giclée print, 2018
Signed Print Edition of 100
H 90cm x W 90cm
Critical Review
H5-6 Plaza is one of eight prints that make up Damien Hirst’s 2018 Colour Space portfolio. The print shows multiple circular dots that form an all-over composition that exudes a sense of playfulness and joy due to Hirst’s bright colour choice. This print negotiates the artist’s ongoing relationship with dots that has been a constant throughout his oeuvre and this series is based on his early Spot paintings.
Hirst has recalled, “I originally wanted the Spots to look like they were painted by a human trying to paint like a machine. Colour Space is going back to the human element, so instead you have the fallibility of the human hand in the drips and inconsistencies. There are still no two exact colours that repeat in each painting, which is really important to me. I think of them as cells under a microscope.”
H5-6 Plaza is far less clinical and restrained than Hirst’s early spot paintings produced in his famous grid-like formula. Instead this print shows drip marks and splatters in between the dots that occasionally overlap across the composition. There is a spontaneous and active quality to this print, the dots appearing like brightly coloured party balloons floating in the air.
