Damien Hirst

He soon became the leader of the Young British Artists (YBA), a group of artists who shared a taste for experimentation and the creation of tactics sometimes perceived as shocking, which dominated the British arts scene in the 1990s. The animals immersed in formaldehyde-filled aquariums in his Natural History series soon became iconic images of his work. Painting is also essential to his art. While his early canvases were inspired by abstract expressionism, in 1986 he embarked on the Spot Paintings series in which coloured dots appear machine-made, erasing all trace of human intervention. Conceived from their inception as an endless series, the Spot Paintings have now reached more than 1,000 paintings. In contrast to this mathematical infinity, the canvases from the Visual Candy Paintings series (1993- ) are composed of thick, brightly coloured patches that overlap one another. More recently, the Colour Space Paintings (2016- ) and Veil Paintings (2018- ) series celebrate the discipline and colour. This exploration found its fulfilment with Cherry Blossoms.

Damien Hirst studied at Leeds university and then at Goldsmiths College in London, where he lived from 1986.