Hypnotically thick impasto in delightfully garish hues define Damien Hirst’s ‘Forever (Small)’ (H8-4, 2020), a limited edition print illustrating abstract details from his painting series ‘Cherry Blossom’ (2018-20). Depicting blossom trees in full bloom, the series is inspired by the work of Pierre Bonnard, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and the Pointillist innovations of Georges Seurat. On the edge of abstraction and figuration, the ‘Cherry Blossoms’ see Hirst combine elements of gestural painting in his thick brushstrokes with more traditional techniques.

In ‘Forever (Small)’, an abstract paint passage from one of Hirst’s towering ‘Cherry Blossoms’ canvases is enlarged, the dynamic swaths garish paint ranging from blue to pink are zoomed in for our microscopic study. Spots, recollective of Hirst’s iconic motif, diverge from the artist’s once symmetrical and evenly coloured forms, permitting the material here to execute its own agency. Curling, puckering, falling and flowing into neighbouring bursts of colour, ‘Forever (Small)’ is packed with action, tactility and intrigue. Humorous in its ability to trick any viewer desperate to touch the bubble gum-like brushes of paint, ‘Forever (Small)’ allows viewers to inspect up close Hirst’s painterly techniques and immerse themselves in his wonderous world of viscous colour.

Produced in 2020 in partnership with the Fondazione Prada in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support schoolchildren in Italy, the fantastically tactile and vibrantly coloured ‘Forever (Small)’ is a reminder of the joy and beauty around us.