DAMIEN HIRST, COLOUR CHART H2, COLOUR CHARTS SERIES, SIGNED GICLEE PRINT, EDITION OF 250, 2017
Colour Chart H2 is a print from Damien Hirst’s Colour Charts series from 2017. The print shows an image of several coloured boxes in a grid-like composition, resembling a commercial paint chart from a homeware shop, each colour labelled and numbered. As a further development from his Spot paintings, this series allows Hirst to continue to explore ‘pinning down the joy of colour.’
Hirst has explained of this series: “‘The Colour Charts’ mean you get to kill two birds with one stone, or I do: I get to please myself with that joy of colour but then also it’s a found object, something I’ve found in the real world and reproduced. They’re about the nature of art: something very comforting in the real world can become terrifying in works of art. What’s comforting in a work of art is a faithful representation of the real thing, so once you take an object from the real world and make it into a great big painting it becomes a terrifying thing…people just go ‘why?’ and the question ‘why?’ horrifies people [they just go] why would you do that?”
The Colour Charts series is indicative of some of Hirst’s most important influences from art history including Pop Art and the idea of the ‘readymade’ from Dadaism. The colour chart used for Colour Chart H2 is a found object, reproduced in a print edition, transforming it from a functional tool to an aestheticized object that highlights the interactive potential of colour.
Read more about Colour Charts by Damien Hirst.
ABOUT DAMIEN HIRST
Arguably one the most successful and well-known artists in the world to date, Damien Hirst is a creative visionary, his brand as prolific as his artwork. Exhibited internationally, he works across sculpture, painting, drawing or installation to create artworks that are characterised by their intensity and tension. Taking inspiration from a range of sources, including Abstract Expressionists John Hoyland and Willem de Kooning, he has cultivated a style recognisable for its brash monumentalism and unapologetic gall. Learn more about Damien Hirst.
