Damien Hirst is a polarizing artist. He was minted at Goldsmiths, forged the YBA with Freeze, and won a Turner. That momentum produced his shark at age 26. Few people know a former Portland collector was instrumental in his work. They lived in Texas, Hirst visited, he was in a challenging life period, they had a houseful of free physician pharmaceutical samples. That was the inspiration for Pharmacy, age 27.
Everyone hates taxes, including art collectors. Just like there is an Irish Sandwhich for reducing corporate taxes, there is an Oregon equivalent for art US collectors. After buying, if you loan your artwork to a museum in Oregon (and several other states,) you are excused from sales taxes. Bruce Guenther at the Portland Art Museum tapped it bringing significant works. Those included Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon. Damien Hirst's Cherry Blossoms was also brought by the Oregon sandwich to the Portland Art Museum in 2019.
Cherry Blossoms came after his Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, widely considered a failure, though it funded numerous studio assistants and fabricators. Cherry Blossoms are large canvases painted in daubs of bright pigments. The floor of Hurst's very large studio was floored with grey canvas to catch the drips; Hirst seems to relish getting pigments all over himself. Blossoms out the door, Hirst stretched the drippy canvas and began his Where the Land Meets the Sea works.
The body has monochrome almost photorealistic images of surf, Sea Paintings; Coast Paintings and Seascapes. Hirst placed those canvases against the wall, flung paint at them, and added more paint, brush and stick in hand. https://www.instagram.com/p/CvJ-xPJIuGf/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/CvwaM1oopGl/. The pieces were named by found tourism post cards, now afixed to the back of the canvases.
Hirst has a new direct sales model through Philips and HENI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCG93Vh7h3U.
The Halle Ford Museum in Salem is part of Willamette University which absorbed PNCA. It is an Oregon private school with generous alumni. The museum is small with a good collection and some rotating shows.
The Halle Ford Museum has on loan Rhossili Beach, Colwyn Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea, 2019.
At the Willamette University Halle Ford Museum https://willamette.edu/arts/hfma/index.html, across from the backside of the Capitol 700 State St, Salem museum hours $8
