Garden of Dreams – H4-3 (Veils)

Damien Hirst’s seemingly abstract candy-coloured flower field, ‘Garden of Dreams’ (2018), is an engulfing facsimile print from his ‘Veil Paintings’ series (2017). Across the series Hirst filled the pictorial space with Bonnard-like colours using a technique reminiscent of Pointillism to create veil-like works, compositions that act as ‘a barrier, a curtain between two things…it’s solid yet invisible and reveals and yet obscures the truth’.  

‘Garden of Dreams’ is incredibly energetic, largely dominated by short strokes of bubble gum pink and variously overlaid with yellows, white, blues and greens. Using exceptionally thick impasto which at times even splatters, ‘Garden of Dreams’ has an air of spontaneity and action. Too, with the numerous painted layers, the composition appears to recede backward seemingly endlessly, as if inviting the viewer to follow along the journey into the depths of the canvas. 

These effects are captured in the present diasec-mounted giclée print on aluminium panel, a facsimile of the highest quality. ‘Garden of Dreams’ conveys every detail of the original painting, eloquently translating the textures, colours and sense of depth to the printed medium. It also builds on the foundations of Hirst’s original work, inherently acting as another boundary before the world within the composition.