Around 1992, Damien Hirst began to experiment with spin art.

He was inspired by memories of the technique of spin painting which he saw as a child on the BBC's Blue Peter. The technique involved the spinning of the canvas on a potter's wheel and the pouring of household emulsion onto the spinning canvas to create a startling array of splatted color.

Hirst eventually commissioned the fabrication of a personal spin art machine for his studio in Berlin.

This new technique introduced an element of chance vs. the formulaic painting process of his earlier work- dots.

However, it still maintained the underlying and fundamental Concept of mechanical intervention that he continues to explore in his work.

Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol and grew up in Leeds. In 1984 he moved to London, where he worked in construction before studying for a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college from 1986 to 1989. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995.

Since the late 1980’s, Hirst has used a varied practice of installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life and death. Explaining: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else,” Hirst’s work investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems, and dissects the tensions and uncertainties at the heart of human experience.

Damien Hirst (b. 1965) | Skull Spin Painting, 2009 | Acrylic on paper | 28 x 20 in

Available for sale at NRFA

Skull Spin Painting by Damien Hirst (b. 1965) | New River Fine Art