Damien Hirst's spots go global

Brace yourselves for pure Damien Hirst madness next year. As well as Tate Modern’s retrospective survey opening in April, there will be a “worldwide” retrospective of Hirst’s spot paintings opening next month.

The Gagosian Gallery will be hosting the global exhibition of Hirst’s jaunty but dull spot paintings across all of its 11 galleries, from Hong Kong to Paris, and from New York to London, as well as in Los Angeles, Athens, Rome and Geneva.

The simultaneous display will total more than 300 of the mostly studio assistant-painted works, from the first spot-on-board created in 1986, to a huge work comprising only four spots of 60 inches in diameter. There’ll also be the most recent painting, completed in 2011, containing 25,781 spots, with no single colour repeated.

Intrigued? Then you’ll want a more “in-depth” look at the series: an iPad app will also launch on 12 January, and a catalogue will include an essay by cultural critic Michael Bracewell and conversations between Hirst, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari.  

The paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions with more than 150 different lenders from 20 countries.

The Gagosian have not yet indicated whether they also intend to present a global retrospective of Hirst’s spin paintings any time soon.  

• The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 by Damien Hirst at Gagosian Galleries from 12 January to 18 February, 2012