Damien Hirst's Cherry Blossoms at Fondation Cartier

Damien Hirst presents his first institutional exhibition in France, 'Cerisiers en Fleurs' (Cherry Blossoms), at Fondation Cartier in Paris, running until January 2, 2022. The show features 30 works selected by Hirst and Fondation Cartier director Hervé Chandès from a series of 107 canvases, including single paintings, diptychs, triptychs, and large-scale polyptychs. Hirst states that the COVID-19 lockdown gave him the courage to paint blossoming trees, a subject he had wanted to tackle since his youth but lacked the nerve. The works mark a departure from his earlier shocking pieces like the shark from Natural History or the diamond-encrusted skull For the Love of God, instead embracing a more poetic, romantic side. The paintings pay homage to Impressionism, Pointillism, and Action Painting, with Hirst citing Seurat, Bonnard, and van Gogh as influences. He explains that adding red, yellow, and orange to the pink and white brought the paintings to life, mimicking how light reflects colors in nature. Symbolically, cherry blossoms represent ephemeral beauty, renewal, and the fragility of life. Hirst sees this series as a bridge between abstraction and figuration, moving away from minimalism toward spontaneous painterly gesture. The exhibition includes a documentary film '360°' produced for the opening.