Why Damien Hirst thinks you can’t get better than Bacon20.11.2008 When Damien Hirst was a kid, he says, ‘All my paintings were like bad Bacons’. We invited Damien to Tate Britain to see the Francis Bacon retrospective. He tells us why he loves the Crucifixion and Head series’: detail that vanishes the closer you get, paint like blood and guts. ‘That’s probably why I love Bacon paintings. When I first saw them they reminded me of places I'd seen in nightmares.’