The Cure (fire red, sun yellow. fire orange)

The Cure (fire red, sun yellow, fire orange) is one of thirty silkscreen prints that compose Hirst’s The Cure series. In this series, Hirst follows the format of rendering a singular pill in a combination of two colour tones against a block coloured backdrop. The bold colours Hirst uses resonate with the Pop Art style popularised by Andy Warhol in the 1960s. Hirst was clearly influenced by Warhol’s work, especially the way in which he reproduced thousands of identical prints of seemingly ordinary and commonplace objects like high heeled shoes and Campbell’s Soup cans.

The series is inspired by the pharmaceutical industry, a sector which has interested Hirst from the start of his artistic career. While studying at Goldsmiths in the 1980s, Hirst created an installation, the Medicine Cabinet, in which he produced medicine cabinets filled with his grandmother’s old medication. The Cure series continues this passion, developing it further by focussing on the actual pharmaceutical products themselves.