Book excerpt: White Cube was pleased to present nineteen new paintings by Damien Hirst. The exhibition was staged at White Cube Mason's Yard and White Cube Hoxton Square. At White Cube Hoxton Square, Hirst presented a group of paintings, which included three triptychs from 2007-09, each depicting crows shot in mid-flight against blue skies, with outspread wings and violent splatters of red paint across their bodies. In the four triptychs on show in the lower ground floor at White Cube Mason's Yard, these crows reappear, as omens of bad news. They often share the space with ghost-like figures, skeletal forms and objects, including chairs, lemons, knives, animal skulls, wine glasses or a scorpion.