Damien Hirst (b. 1965)

"I once said that the spot paintings could be what art looks like viewed through an imaginary microscope. I love the fact that in the paintings the angst is removed ... If you look closely at any one of these paintings a strange thing happens: because of the lack of repeated colours, there is no harmony. We are used to picking out chords of the same colour and balancing them with different chords of other colours to create meaning. This can't happen. So in every painting there is subliminal sense of unease; yet the colours project so much joy it's hard to feel it, but it's there" (D. Hirst, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now, London 1997, p. 246).