On the dot.

This should be entitled “Damien Hirst vs. Yayoi Kusama“.  Hirst being known for his large collection of spots paintings and Kusama for her polka dots she covers everything with. 

Why?  I went to see Hirst’s complete collection of spots paintings at the Gagosian gallery on Saturday.  I had seen a couple in the past and liked them so I wanted to see them as an ensemble.  I was surprised by my own reaction: after two minutes in the gallery I felt bored, dizzy and suffocated by all those perfect dots in the same range of colours on each and every canvases.  The only variations being the size of the dots and size of the canvases.  The next day I read an article about Yayoi Kusama ahead of an exhibition of her work at Tate Modern.  I found interesting that both have an obsession with dots.  I don’t know about Hirst but, for Kusama, her polka dots seem to be dictated to her by her own mental illness.  I therefore wanted to experiment for myself the pleasure – or not – of painting dots.  My conclusion is that it is a terribly painful, yet challenging experience…Well I did that on the corner of a table, applying unmixed primary colours, in half an hour and without the help of an army of assistants as Hirst might have but yet this was plenty of time to say no, not for me.