 |
NEWS RELEASE 15th March 2005
Damien Hirst turns his hand to sciencephotorealism
Several Science Photo Library (SPL) images form part of a new Damien Hirst exhibition, which opened on 11th March at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. The exhibition comprises thirty entirely new Hirst paintings completed over the last three and a half years. The paintings signal a new direction in his work - that of photorealism. Photorealism was an invention of the 1960s. Take a photograph, and copy it meticulously, until your painting and the photograph are indistinguishable. From a distance Hirst's paintings look like photographs. But close up you can see that they have all been executed using oil paint and brushes.
Above left: Brain pathology SIMON FRASER/NEUROPATHOLOGY DEPT./NEWCASTLE GENERAL HOSPITAL
Above right: Autopsy room CUSTOM MEDICAL STOCK PHOTO
The images came from a variety of different sources, in addition to SPL. Hirst first identified a photograph that he wanted to re-create. Then he got his people to phone up and get permission to use it. Then his team of assistants would copy it and Hirst would finish the painting, adding touches here and there. He swaps the assistants round from painting to painting, so that no single person is ever responsible for the whole thing.
Maria Storey, Sales and Marketing Director of Science Photo Library, says: "We do occasionally licence our images to artists who want to use them for source material. But until you see the finished artwork, we never know how close to the original photograph it will be. The look and feel of the Hirst's oil paintings is different from the original photographs, although the image itself is almost facsimile reproduction."
For more information and photographs contact Reena Shah, Marketing Executive, Science Photo Library, 327-329 Harrow Road, London W9 3RB. Tel: 020 7432 1100, Fax: 020 7286 8668, reena.shah@sciencephoto.com
|
|
