Damien Hirst a Fraud?

An artist believes that his paintings of cherry blossoms largely inspired Hirst to make his own.

Damien Hirst is once again suspected of plagiarism. This time, his paintings of cherry blossoms were exhibited at the Cartier Foundation in Paris until last January, who are singled out. Artist Joe Machine has noted important similarities between Hirst's paintings and his own, produced a decade earlier. "I saw Hirst's cherry blossom paintings, and for a moment I thought I was looking at my own paintings ," marvels Joe Machine, according to The Guardian .

Hirst, who has spent the last three years painting these cherry blossoms, has always said that this subject was partly inspired by the memory of his mother painting a cherry blossom as a child.

In the 2000s, Hirst had already been accused of plagiarism for his famous diamond skull .

In 2010 , Charles Thomson, artist and co-founder of Stuckists, including Joe Machine argued that "Hirst puts himself forward as a great artist, but much of his work exists only because others have developed original ideas that he has stolen.

Seeing the cherry trees made by Hirst, the latter first thought that they were works of Joe Machine. He explained that "Joe has been making and exhibiting cherry blossom paintings since 2006. The general appearance is similar – a structure of brown branches, bright pink flowers against a clear blue sky. Both of their paintings use paint splatters, to give the impression of a flower".

In 2017 , Hirst was accused of cultural appropriation by Nigerian artist Victor Ehikhamenor, who pointed to the striking resemblance of the Golden Heads (Female) statue to an Ife Head, unearthed in 1938 near Lagos, Nigeria. In the process, the British artist Jason deCaires Taylor had reproached Hirst for having been largely inspired by his work to produce his Treasures from the wreckage of the Unimaginable.

The British artist has been regularly under fire from critics for more than twenty years. In 2018, he himself declared with phlegm: "all my ideas are stolen anyway".

seen in Le Journal des arts - Julie Goy

Video: Hirst at Fondation Cartier