<div><p>Damien Hirst, once the enfant terrible of the British art world, has been slammed as simply terrible for his latest work, which he -- shock, horror -- painted himself.</p><p>The scathing reviews were compounded by a new survey showing he has plummeted nearly 50 places down a ranking of the contemporary art world's most powerful movers and shakers.</p><p>One of London's most traditional art galleries, best known for housing works by the likes of Velazquez and Titian, will show "No Love Lost", a collection of 25 paintings, many featuring dark depictions of human skulls and shark bones.</p><p>But unlike the work which first brought him fame involving animals preserved in formaldehyde, or more recent dot or spin paintings made by assistants, Hirst actually put brush to canvas using his own hands.</p><p>They were presented this week, but critics were far from impressed.</p><p>"The paintings are dreadful. Think Francis Bacon meets Adrian Mole... What are they doing in the home of such masters as Rembrandt or Poussin, Titian or Fragonard?" wrote a commentator in the Times newspaper.</p><p>In the Guardian, a critic concluded: "At its worst, Hirst's drawing just looks amateurish and adolescent. His brushwork lacks that oomph and panache that makes you believe in the painter's lies. He can't yet carry it off."</p><p>Sarah Crompton in the Daily Telegraph said the paintings initially look "dazzling."</p><p>"The problems with the exhibition begin when you study the paintings themselves. Although they have impact as a group, individually many of the paintings simply don't pass muster.</p><p>"Details are tentatively painted; compositions fall apart under scrutiny," she added.</p><p>The criticism came as Hirst dropped from first place to number 48 in the space of a year in a Power 100 list publshed by the contemporary art magazine ArtReview.</p><p>Hirst said earlier this week that he found it "quite funny" that art lovers were surprised he was creating paintings.</p><p>"You kind of think that you've done all that formaldehyde work and then it's a real shock that you're doing something quite straightforward," he said.</p><p>Rosalind Savill, director of the Wallace Collection where the paints are shown, added: "Damien Hirst wanted an intimate national museum to present his paintings that are much more traditional than what he had done before."</p><p>The works date from between 2006 and 2008 and mainly belong to a Ukrainian collector. This is the first time they have been on public show in Britain.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=61205802&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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