Since 1986, Damien Hirst has created over 1,000 spot paintings. But how many are there exactly? Hirst estimates he has produced around 1,400 since beginning this series in 1988. While minimalist in appearance, the Spot Paintings are complex and open to various interpretations. Their simplicity lies in their replicable pattern—countless dots arranged in vibrant colors—making them an iconic element of Hirst’s career.
Similarly, Ben-Day dots became central to the style of Roy Lichtenstein, the American artist often called the "father of Pop Art." Lichtenstein used these dots to imitate printing techniques, evoking comic book aesthetics and popular culture’s visual language. His fascination with comic imagery began in the early 1960s, when he explored the look of mass media and consumer culture. Through meticulously hand-painted dots applied via stencil or brush, Lichtenstein created texture, shading, and depth, mimicking the printed effect of Ben-Day dots. This technique blurred the line between high art and low art, using elements of mass culture to make fine art.
In contrast, Hirst's dots, hand-painted yet machine-like in appearance, celebrate precision and color. Each spot in his work is uniform in size, arranged in a grid, and rarely repeats a color. In 2012, he invited viewers to experience his art globally, encouraging them to visit over 200 spot paintings exhibited at Gagosian Gallery locations worldwide.
Lichtenstein’s dots helped create a visual signature that challenged traditional ideas about art and originality, transforming mass-produced imagery into high art. His technique provoked questions about the role of the artist and the value of mass culture, with his bold, comic-inspired aesthetic becoming a hallmark of Pop Art and influencing generations of artists.
Most famously, Lichtenstein appropriated the Benday dots, the minute mechanical patterning used in commercial engraving, to convey texture and gradations of color—a stylistic language synonymous with his subject matter. Milton Esterow, “Conversation: How Could You Be Much Luckier Than I Am?”, ARTnews [3]
In the 1990s, Hirst's Spot paintings took off. After producing the first few himself, he enlisted assistants to help expand the series, with a mechanical quality that reflected a sense of endless reproduction. This marked Hirst's entry into art “fabrication,” a method explored by Andy Warhol and later Jeff Koons. Hirst famously praised his assistant Rachel, calling her the best at painting his spots. The series thus became Hirst’s first venture into art-making beyond his direct hand.
In recent years, Hirst has softened the rigidity of the Spot works with his "Colour Space" paintings, which emphasize the “fallibility of the human hand.” These newer works include visible drips and imperfections, reconnecting with a human touch. Rumors suggest Hirst may even be working on a million-spot painting, projected to take nine years to complete.
"At the very beginning of my spot painting career I made some messy spots and I hated them, so I perfected them into perfect dots. For 25 years I made perfect dots. At the very end, I went back to the first ones - I made two or three - and I thought, I’m just going to make these messy ones again. And I really liked them." Damien Hirst
The endless repetition in the Spot paintings reflects both the joy of color harmony and the unsettling nature of pharmaceutical dependency, as Hirst often names his paintings after drugs. With this combination of simple aesthetics and infinite variation, the Spot paintings have become both a symbol of boundless creativity and a potent reflection on consumerism and addiction.
Speaking of the Spot paintings, artist Michael Craig-Martin – one of Hirst’s tutors at Goldsmiths – has said, "I always thought about [them] as the beginning; who’d have thought that years later there would be over 1000 of them, that they would be all over the world, and that everybody would recognise them."
