Dominion
Smack. Like a slap in the face, the piercing eyes of Myra Hindley stare you down the moment you walk in the gallery. I first and last saw this work in Brooklyn in 1999 and had forgotten just how large and mesmerising it is. Subverting pointillism to recreate the convicted child killer’s mugshot using thousands of imprints of small childrens hands, Marcus Harvey’s 1995 masterpiece pushed the boundaries of taste in all the right ways. It’s aesthetically beautiful, it’s highly contentious, and its prominent inclusion in a show about Damien Hirst and his private collection is apropos for an artist for whom controversy has always come first.
Works this polarising need to be viewed in person rather than written about by people who have never seen them, and Myra is one of many obvious attempts to shock and awe the visitors to this show. But unless you’re a critic or art aficionado (or visiting with one, which I highly recommend) you’re likely to walk around confused and underwhelmed. Aside from artist name and year, there’s no other info about the 80 works displayed. And since most of them are a few decades old the visuals are no longer as shocking as they once were.
Francs Bacon always impresses but the three giant Wes Lang paintings filled with Americana doodles won’t make sense to most visitors. The four Banksys and a Basquiat are all forgettable and clearly included due to name recognition. There’s a work by Jeff Koons that has not aged well, and I highly suspect the two antique human skulls are here because they were probably banished from the house by Hirst’s half-his-age girlfriend. The show is equivalent to a Gen X parent trying to convince a teenager that Nirvana is still shocking in 2024. Influential? Absolutely. Shocking? Hardly.
There are, however, some stunning inclusions. I was greatly pleased to see works from Gillian Carnegie and Boo Saville that I’d never seen before but aside from nostalgia I’ve no idea what this show is about. That’s a shame because you can learn a lot about a man from the art he collects and the insights of his family. Hirst’s eldest child Connor curated the show, pulling works from the elder Hirst’s private collection but there’s a complete lack of text and no explanations provided about anything. Did Conner grow up in the shadow of any of these works? Have any inspired his father’s art and if so, how? This show could have been an amazing way to gain insights into who Damian Hirst really is, exploring in detail why he bought what he bought rather than shamelessly remind us that he has the capital to own a handful of Banksy.
The show is also a bit of a curatorial mess. There’s far too much repetition. 20% of the show is dedicated to Sarah Lucas and Gavin Turk and aside from one red themed room the thematic alignments all seem to point to the same thing: Hirst’s aesthetic is essentially that of a teenage boy obsessed with sex and death, and the sex on show isn’t sexy. Given how many incredibly good works and prominent names are on display, and how many more I suspect are lucking in Hirst’s storage cabinets, this exhibition could have been another Sensation. Alas, it’s hung like a child was given free rein to run around an art warehouse and told “point at the works you like and daddy will hang them.”
Ironically, I spent the most time admiring a 1995 Hirst dot painting. It’s one of the original big ones and seeing it in person almost made me cry. Unlike almost anything made by Hirst’s studio in the last few decades, this gigantic work (3.5 x 5 metres) made with the muted colours of standard household paint is clearly something that the artist, and the artist alone, worked on. At least that’s my assumption, because you can clearly see the brush strokes, finger marks and other imprints of human touch. I love how the dots get cropped off at the edges. It’s an imperfect work and perfect because of it. But sadly, seeing this piece and indeed the entire exhibition was like looking back at your high school yearbook and wondering what could have been.
Plan your visit
‘Dominion’ runs until 01 September.
Free
Visit newportstreetgallery.com and follow @newportstreetgallery_london on Instagram for more info about the venue.
PLUS…
Check the What’s On page so you don’t miss any other great shows closing soon.
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter. (It’s FREE!)