'the meek shall inherit the earth' by damien hirst (2008)  - photo courtesy damien hirst and the wallace collection

today the exhibition 'no love lost, blue paintings' by damien hirst opened at london's wallace collection.
the show is features 25 works, including two triptychs that were by painted by the artist himself between 2006 - 2008.

the pieces are influenced by francis bacon's work from the 1950s. of the collection hirst said 'the paintings are about
my mortality, whereas all the other stuff was about my immortality. I mean I definitely believed I was going to live
forever, for a while, back there.'


'requiem, white flowers and butterflies' by damien hirst (2008)

following the press preview hirst and the 'blue paintings' have been heavily criticised with the independent remarking
'they're not worth looking at… there are dozens of youngsters who turn up at our art schools each year, doing this
turgid teen-angst stuff.' and the guradian 'he may have done them on his own, but these doomy, gloomy paintings
look positively amateurish' with many others voicing a similar opinion.

however, speaking before the opening of the show hirst seemed only to aware of how the collection might be received:
'for two years when I was painting them I thought, fucking hell, if I die now they're going to come in here and go,
'oh, he fucked it up at the end. he was brilliant up to that point and then he did these and they're awful.'' 
'it's funny that that is shocking as well. for me to do paintings is more shocking than formaldehyde.'

for those who want to make up their own mind the show at the wallace collection is free to visit
and runs until sunday 24th January, 2010. more images of the works can be seen here.