Back Forward

kusama

Back Forward

Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Dots Mirrored Room, 1996

What's better than 300 Hirst spot paintings? A room full of spots, preferably with mirrors and some trippy lighting. Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory has two such rooms on offer, by Yayoi Kusama.

Back Forward

John Armleder, Untitled, 1983

The Swiss artist John Armleder is often cited as a progenitor of Hirst's spot paintings. (He has been doing them for years, as part of his inexhaustible, endlessly varied practice.) Here's a classy one from the early 1980s.

Back Forward

François Morellet, Bleu-Vert-Jaune-Orange, 1954

If there are no Hirst spots available to satiate your spot needs, François Morellet's mid-1950s canvases are an almost perfect, generic substitute.

Back Forward

Wassily Kandinsky, Concentric Circles, 1913

Would we have Damien Hirst without Kandinsky? Probably. But Kandinsky remains the maestro of pure abstraction, and as quite a few of his works reveal, he was a remarkable spot painter.

Back Forward

Niele Toroni, Empreintes de pinceau n°50 à intervalles de 30 cm, 2008

Must spots be round? Among the 18 definitions of "spot" that Dictionary.com offers is a note that it is "usually roundish." Mr. Toroni, ever an innovator, pushes the definition of "spot" to its outer limit, bedecking his paintings with single brush marks that are closer to squares than circles. Are they spots or dots?

Back Forward

Body paintings by Stefan Tcherepnin of Grand Openings

A spot painting need not be done on canvas or panel, paper or cloth of any kind. Do as Stefan Tcherepnin did this summer at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of Grand Openings' residency there: invite a friend over and paint her with spots. Make a living, breathing spot painting, free of institutional constraints.

Back Forward

Kenneth Noland, Echo, 1961

Color Field painter Kenneth Noland remains an under-appreciated hero of the spot painting movement, crafting a remarkable variety of spots throughout his long career.

Back Forward

Jasper Johns, Target, 1958

We can hear you thinking: "That's not a spot painting. That's a target." Sometimes, seeing a spot painting is just a matter of adopting a certain state of mind. Behold, Johns' iconic work features plenty of spots, each carefully nested inside one another.

Back Forward

Poul Gernes, Cirkler II, 1965

It is hard to find Danish painter Poul Gernes's spot paintings in the States, but if you find yourself wandering around Europe over the next two months and don't have a moment to stop at a Gagosian in London, Paris, Geneva, Rome or Athens, some of his spot paintings may be available at a nearby museum, ready to fill you with joy.

Back Forward

Ed Ruscha, Spots On The Dice, 1989

This Ruscha appears to be in a private collection, but the truly devoted spot-painting lover may want to ring Gagosian and track it down. It's a major work, transmuting the spot from geometric shape to pure signifer. Mr. Ruscha conjures a world of spots with just five letters: "S-P-O-T-S." And look, floating in the background: more spots!

Back Forward

Claire Fontaine, Untitled (Tennis Ball Sculpture), 2009

Leave it to the French readymade artist to radically alter our notion of spot painting: taking spots off the wall and spilling them across the floor. Though plenty of scatter works can provide spot pleasure (many of Felix Gonzalez-Torres's works come to mind), few do it with the economy and elegance of this untitled piece.

Back Forward

Vija Celmins, Night Sky, 2005

Ms. Celmins bravely reminds us that a spot painting need not be abstract. There are spots everywhere in our world, surrounding us at every moment, staring down on us from up above as we sleep at night.

Back

Walter Robinson spot painting at Max Fish

Gagosian galleries close at 6 p.m. Lower East Side bar Max Fish, on the other hand, stays open well into the early morning hours many nights, making it an ideal place for after-hours spot appreciation: it has one of Walter Robinson's choice spot paintings from the 1980s. Yes, it's a double-sided work, and the opposite side offers an image—dare we say it?—even more wonderful than a panel of spots.