PV258 CELESTINE VEIL
signed, titled and dated CELESTINE VEIL / DAMIEN HIRST / 2019 on the reverse
oil on card laid on canvas
59.5 x 42cm; 23 1/2 x 16 1/2in
unframed

Property from a Private Collection, Westminster

Provenance
HENI Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2022

Exhibited
London, HENI Gallery, Damien Hirst: Paper Veils, 2022

A veil is a barrier, a curtain between two things, something that you can look at and pass through. It’s solid yet invisible and reveals and yet obscures the truth, the thing that we are searching for. Damien Hirst

Repeated explosive splatters of green, pink, blue and yellow paint build up the surface of the present work. Thick dabs and spots of impasto are pristinely frozen with freshness, lightness and perpetual energy, each with their own distinct structure which curves and bends with the direction of the application of paint, bringing Hirst's studio practice to life. PV258 Celestine Veil is from Hirst's Veil Painting series begun in 2017. Each work is a unique and abstracted exploration of colour and texture which resemble botanical forms and are loosely inspired by the texture of the Iced Gems biscuits his grandmother used to give him as a child.

Like so much of Hirst's experimental and diverse artistic oeuvre the work is an homage to art history. The application of paint is inspired by the optical innovations of Pontillism and the work of Post-Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard, and its emphasis on all-over colour and gestural movement a reference to Abstract Expressionism, particularly the work of Willem De Kooning, who has been a life-long influence on Hirst. Situated firmly within his visual language of repetition, from pills to butterflies (see lot 90), the work also marks a return to Hirst's painting series from the 1980s and 90s, such as Spot Paintings (from 1986), Spin Paintings (from 1992) and Visual Candy (1993). Breaking from the confines of the grid which order his Spots and the restricted mechanical movement of the Spin Paintings, the Veils are liberated from physical limitations as intuitive expressions of colour, paint and technique.

Hirst began producing his Veil Paintings in the same year as he showed his monumental and ambitious sculptures Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable in Venice. The large-scale production and decade-long planning for the project saw the artist return to a more meditative, intimate style of hand-painting which has permeated his artistic output since. The larger Veil Paintings were first exhibited at Gagosian in 2018, and the following year, in collaboration with HENI, Hirst produced 300 original smaller paintings. By working on an intimate scale in a limited editioned series which have greater reach, the works offer a close relationship between the viewer and the artwork, and their abstract nature permits an ambiguity which emphasises subjective experience and interpretation. Hirst's Veils foreground the importance of colour and intricate detail in the ability to create an immersive piece of art, one which he hoped would make the viewer, above all else, 'want to stay in the painting'.