Damien Hirst: The Taming of the Shrew

Provocatively beautiful! In this - and not, as expected, in reversed order, one can summarise the upcoming exhibition by Damien Hirst. Instead of animal cadavers sunk in formaldehyde, the former enfant terrible relies on harmonious cherry blossoms, polarising the art world more than ever before.

A magnificent park with lush greenery, designed by Lothar Baumgarten, surrounds the bold glass construction by architect and Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel, which grows out of a sea of manifold trees and rears up before the eyes of the visitors. Since 1994, ten years after its founding, the “Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain” has been situated in a prominent location in the 14th arrondissement of Paris and has become a rallying point for contemporary art and its admirers. The Maison’s mission is to promote contemporary artists and bring them into dialogue with the public. The artist of the current exhibition should also provide plenty of topics for discussion: Damien Hirst - grand master of staging and probably one of the most influential artists of our time.

These include the platinum cast of a skull set with 8601 diamonds (“For the Love of God”, 2007), which was bought by an investment group for 100 million dollars, a gold-plated mammoth skeleton that would make even King Midas stiffen with envy (“Gone but not Forgotten” 2014), or meticulously sorted pills and medical utensils in a display case (“Naked” 1994). “I want to make art that can’t be ignored,” the media-affine artist said in an interview.

The exhibition “Damien Hirst, Cherry Blossoms” will open this summer and can be seen at the “Fondation Cartier” in Paris until 2 January 2022.

Art in Crisis
It is therefore surprising that Hirst’s most recent exhibition, “Mental Escapology”, a public show of works with impressive sculptures, in St. Moritz in the canton of Graubünden at the “Fondation Cartier” radiates an aesthetic of the opposite kind. Cherry blossoms are the central motif of the largescale oil paintings with thick application of paint and an expressive note, which may remind some of the “Veil Paintings” series (2018) with its technique. Along with the “Spin Art” series with works such as “Beautiful Ray of Sunshine on a Rainy Day Painting” (1992), they are indications that the artist does not limit himself to one discipline or style. Nevertheless, it raises the question of whether the former enfant terrible lost his touch recently - at first glance, the series seems suspiciously harmonious, even sweet. On closer inspection, however, a classic motif behind Hirst’s work can be recognised in the splendour of the blossoms: “Cherry blossoms are all about beauty and life and death. They are extreme - there is something almost kitsch about them,” Hirst says. Perhaps the working conditions of the past months have also led to a more subtle approach; after all, the series was finalised during the lockdown. This is an unusual situation for the otherwise very busy artist: “I have returned to a more isolated form of art. While my exhibition in Venice involved around 200 people from all over the world, I found myself alone in my studio at the beginning of the lockdown,” he explains in an interview. So he had to do without his team of countless creatives (reportedly up to 200 at peak times) who usually lend Hirst a hand. “It’s like when I first started.

The glass construction of Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel now houses the “Fondation Cartier”. The collection contains about 2000 works by 350 artists.

Just me and a paintbrush!” His work, he says, is also what helped him cope with the changing situation during the lockdowns in the United Kingdom. However, opportunities aside, Hirst is likely to demonstrate his marketing flair once again with the series. He already proved himself to be a smart businessman in the past and succeeded, for example, in raising considerable resources by selling around 287 works of art, bypassing his gallery owner, shortly before the financial crisis. At the time, there was talk of proceeds of around 172 million dollars. The sales figures for his Cherry Blossom series are also record-breaking: the 7481 prints alone, each numbered and hand-signed, which were offered for sale between 25 February and 3 March, brought in almost 22.5 million pounds to his account. A side note: cryptocurrencies were also accepted, which, apparently, have a special appeal for Hirst and are supposed to encourage him to start a new project. But back to the floral splendour: 30 works from the series, selected by Hervé Chandès and Damien Hirst, are now waiting for visitors at the “Fondation Cartier”. There they will find themselves in the best company, for the collection comprises around 2000 works of various disciplines by 350 artists from all over the world. Among them: resounding names like David Lynch or Juergen Teller. Whether tamed or not, Hirst will in any case ensure a rush of visitors and create polarisation - that may not be in the nature of the cherry blossom, but in that of the artist.