Damien Hirst (b. 1965)

'If you have a problem, you can step back from it in order to see it. There is no limit to how far back you can step. Things look different from very far away. The Spot Paintings are about that kind of changing distance and scale, like a molecular structure of something. I guess that it has a kind of scientific look. On a superficial level they are just a matrix of lots of little elements. I always notice loads of references or crossovers in works. I arrange things in a very formal way, just colour or something like that, Hans Hoffman. I spend a long time working out the meaning and metaphorical elements just to get myself in a position where I can do a very playful colour things. (D. Hirst quoted M. D'Argenzio (ed.), 'Like People, Like Flies: Damien Hirst Interviewed', The Agony and the Ecstasy: Selected Works from 1989 - 2004, exh. cat., Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples 2004, p. 227).