The Veils (H4: 1-4) by Damien Hirst stand as a tribute to his Veil Paintings series (2017) and mark a turning point in his exploration of color and gesture. Created between 2018 and 2020, this series draws inspiration from the Visual Candy paintings of the 1990s, where multicolored impasto dots form vibrant constellations, inviting the viewer to dive into a luminous and ever-shifting depth.
Here, Hirst revisits the legacy of Georges Seurat’s pointillism, infusing it with a newfound gestural freedom. His dense, layered applications of paint play on contrasts, offering a sensory experience that oscillates between wonder and mystery. As he explains: “A veil is a barrier, a curtain between two things. It is solid, yet invisible.”
These works mark a departure from the precision of his Spot Paintings or Medicine Cabinets, instead celebrating an explosion of color and a liberated approach to painting. The Veils editions embody Hirst’s search for balance between the visible and the invisible, where the brilliance of the colors both conceals and reveals a deeper truth to be uncovered.
