The Story
This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Damien Hirst: Visual Candy and Natural History at Gagosian, Hong Kong, which included more than thirty paintings and sculptures by Damien Hirst from the early to mid-1990s. The Visual Candy paintings allude to art historical movements such as Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, while the Natural History sculptures—glass tanks containing biological specimens preserved in formaldehyde—reflect the visceral realities of scientific investigation through minimalist design. Despite their stark formal differences, the two series were made during the same period and share conceptual foundations: an exploration of the relationships between pleasure and pain, transience and permanence, logic and emotion. The bilingual (English/Chinese) publication includes a new text by James Fox which considers the origins of the Visual Candy paintings.
Description
This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Damien Hirst: Visual Candy and Natural History at Gagosian, Hong Kong, which included more than thirty paintings and sculptures by Damien Hirst from the early to mid-1990s. The Visual Candy paintings allude to art historical movements such as Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, while the Natural History sculptures—glass tanks containing biological specimens preserved in formaldehyde—reflect the visceral realities of scientific investigation through minimalist design. Despite their stark formal differences, the two series were made during the same period and share conceptual foundations: an exploration of the relationships between pleasure and pain, transience and permanence, logic and emotion. The bilingual (English/Chinese) publication includes a new text by James Fox which considers the origins of the Visual Candy paintings.
