Glycine N-15 was created in 2002, during a fairly early phase of Damien Hirst’s engagement with the spot paintings, a body of work that has become one of the most recognisable and conceptually rigorous systems in contemporary art. At first glance, the spot paintings appear governed by clarity and restraint: evenly spaced circles, no repetition of colour, a surface organised according to a strict internal logic. Yet it is precisely this discipline that allows the works to open onto something far larger. Rather than functioning as decorative abstractions, the spot paintings propose a visual language built on continuity, possibility, and duration. Hirst has often spoken about his desire to remove narrative, gesture, and hierarchy from painting. In the spot works, colour is liberated from symbolism and psychology. Each hue exists independently, equal to the next, participating in a system where meaning emerges not from individual elements, but from their collective presence. The paintings resist storytelling, instead offering a form of visual neutrality that encourages prolonged looking. While the rules are consistent across the series, each original spot painting represents a unique configuration: a precise stopping point within an idea that, in theory, has no end. The spacing, scale, and balance feel carefully judged, the result of decisions made in a particular moment rather than the automatic execution of a formula. This tension between the infinite and the finite lies at the heart of the spot paintings’ quiet power. As a system, they appear timeless. They could have been conceived in the past, continue in the present, and extend indefinitely into the future. As individual paintings, however, they are anchored in time. In recent years, Hirst’s decision to step back from selling original paintings and instead focus on editions and multiples has brought renewed attention to works such as Glycine N-15. That shift underscores an important distinction between the idea of the spot paintings and their manifestation as physical, singular objects. While the logic of the system may be endlessly repeatable, the original paintings remain fixed points within it, moments when the infinite was briefly held still. The title, drawn from the naming convention that links the paintings to chemical compounds and amino acids, further reinforces the work’s sense of structure and neutrality. Like scientific notation, it distances the painting from narrative while situating it within a broader framework of order and classification. Yet the experience of the work remains visual and sensory, unfolding through rhythm, colour relationships, and scale.