To extend the sensitive experience of the exhibition visit, Damien Hirst and the Fondation Cartier have made a documentary film, featuring the artist speaking in the privacy of his studio, where he reveals how he conceived of and created the "Cherry Blossoms" paintings.
Wearing sneakers and covered in paint, Hirst opens the doors to his light flooded London studio on the Thames to the sounds of rock music. The camera films the artist’s dance as he moves from one canvas to the other, continually returning to paintings he can’t quite manage to finish, diving into a blank canvas until it is entirely covered in paint, then piling up his paintings on top of each other.
Wide-angle static shots show Hirst sitting in his legendary Chesterfield armchair, silently looking at his paintings; energetically throwing paint in the style of Jackson Pollock; or conscientiously applying it in dabs, in the way of Georges Seurat.
Close-up shots reveal the thick textures, drips and layers of sharp colours composing his paintings.
Filmed over the course of a year, these rare images offer an immersion into the heart of Hirst’s creative process, providing keys to understand his work. Interviewed by the art historian and writer Tim Marlow,
Hirst reveals the exhilarated pleasure of his relationship
to painting, and his career-long investigation into colour.
Production : Fondation pour l’art contemporain
Réalisation : HENI, Damien Hirst, Fondation Cartier
pour l’art contemporain