5-Hydroxyuridine

Sublimely clinical, vivacious yet unyielding, 5-Hydroxyuridine is a stunning example of Damien Hirst’s iconic Spot Paintings. Against a ground of pristine white, Hirst has painted a grid of dots in bold, crisp colours, each tone used only once across the gleaming ground. The title of the painting was taken from the chemical company Sigma-Aldrich’s product catalogue, which Hirst chanced upon in the early 1990s; he decided that he would make a work for each drug listed. Producing an almost molecular structure formed by the unique pigments, 5-Hydroxyuridine suggests a limitless chromatic possibility that extends infinitely beyond the painting’s frame. ‘I was always a colourist,’ Hirst has claimed. ‘I just move colour around on its own. So that's what the spot paintings came from – to create that structure to do those colours… Mathematically, with the spot paintings, I probably discovered the most fundamentally important thing in any kind of art. Which is the harmony of where colour can exist on its own, interacting with other colours in a perfect format’ (D. Hirst quoted in D. Hirst and G. Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2001, pp. 119-120). Painted in 2010, 5-Hydroxyuridine is part of the artist’s ongoing meditation on science, aesthetics, order, and chaos, themes which have anchored his practice since he was young. Hirst first rose to prominence in the early 1990s when he gained notoriety for his use of insects and dead sharks, among other less traditional materials, but in contrast with some of the darker strains that he has probed, the Spot Paintings emanate a profound sense of euphoria and celebration. Indeed, the unlimited permutations implied by the work’s composition suggest an eternal renewal. In 5-Hydroxyuridine, Hirst envisions a future filled with never-ending possibility.