“I really like making them. And I really like the machine, and I really like the movement. Every time they're finished, I'm desperate to do another one.”
—Damien Hirst on his Spin Paintings
According to Hirst, the Spin Paintings that have been integrated into his practice since the early 1990s are “a massive explosion of energy—full of life, color and optimism.” Adopting a populist approach to artmaking, Hirst drew inspiration from Blue Peter — the UK children’s television program that he grew up with — when devising the spin technique. Following his initial experimentation in 1992, Hirst hosted a spin art stall with fellow artist Angus Fairhurst at the street fair ‘A Fete Worse than Death’ the subsequent year in 1993, where members of the public were invited to create their own spin paintings signed by the artists for a mere £1. Hirst has continued to refine and revisit the technique, investing in his own spin machine and scaling up his compositions by directly pouring household paints from a ladder onto canvases, to accentuate the explosive centrifugal energy of the smaller Spin Paintings. This body of work has since contributed to seminal exhibitions including Hirst’s 2012 retrospective at Tate Modern and served as the inspiration for two robust volumes of etchings published by The Paragon Press in 2002.
