‘No Love Lost’ at The Wallace Collection

Year 13 Art Trip - Thursday 22nd October, 2009

The Wallace Collection is currently hosting an exhibition of 25 new paintings by Damien Hirst. ‘No Love Lost’ is a series of paintings that, in the artist’s words are “deeply connected to the past.” The way in which they are exhibited is carefully considered. In contrast to the white walls of a contemporary gallery, Hirst has opted to present these works in a classical environment, amongst Old Master paintings.
Year 13 Art students are currently studying ways in which to produce contemporary art forms in response to more traditional pieces. This exhibition provided inspiration for their own, independent themes which range from ‘Satire in Fashion’ to ‘Body Image’. The following report is by Tanyel Kentmen.

‘We were taken of a tour of the paintings in the collection and their significance to the Hirst exhibition. When walking into the room, we noticed the work immediately; large black backgrounds with aluminous blue images popping out at us. The image that was most eye-catching was the skull. This related to Damien Hurst’s earlier work of the diamond skull and we were told it related to the theme of death and mortality. Other images used in the painted were of shark jaws. The shark also relates to Damien’s earlier work of the shark in the tank. In his paintings he used images such as a cigarette and ashtray to show how we can shorten our mortality by giving into smoking, so it was almost like a campaign against smoking! One of the images that confused us in the paintings was a bright yellow lemon. So we asked ‘Does it show how bitter life can be?’ and our speaker answered, ‘Well we asked Mr Hirst, and he simply replied, there was a lemon next to me, so I decided to put it in there’. It goes to show however much we analyse an image; it doesn’t always have to have a deeper meaning to it. This is very typical Damien Hirst. We were asked the question, ‘Why do you think Hirst decided to go back to traditional media and paint these pictures?’. We assumed that he wanted to be able to show people that he can use every Fine Art medium. We were told that it is because most of the work he has ever created hasn’t actually been made by him, he just comes up with the ideas and it is done for him. Can he actually build a glass tank by himself? This exhibition for him was a ‘hands-on’ project, so it has more meaning and depth to it than all his other previous work.

Hirst’s ability to respond to classical pieces really inspired my work. I have since extended my research into more traditional forms of Fine Art and I feel it has made me more open to a variety of styles in addition to contemporary media.’