To extend the sensorial 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, revealing how he conceived of and created the paintings in the Cherry Blossoms series.
In 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 next, continually returning to the paintings he can’t quite manage to finish, diving into a blank canvas until it is entirely covered in paint, then piling 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 Pollack; or conscientiously applying it in dabs, in the style of Georges Seurat.
Close-up shots reveal the thick textures, drips and layers of sharp colors composing these paintings.
Filmed over the course of a year, these rare images offer an immersion into the heart of Hirst’s creative process, providing keys for understanding his work. Interviewed by the art historian and writer Tim Marlow, Hirst reveals the exhilarated pleasure of his relationship to painting, and the explorations of color that he has undertaken from the start.