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Lot Essay
A whirling, radial explosion of colour and movement, Beautiful I Slap-a the Thigh with Glee Painting is a spectacular example of Damien Hirst’s spin paintings. Kaleidoscopic rays of red, blue, orange, green and magenta burst forth, fanning outwards from the centre like sunbeams. Ribbons of yellow loop and swirl across the surface, spiralling into oblivion. Begun in earnest during the mid-1990s, these works represent one of the artist’s most important series of paintings. Hirst created them by pouring household emulsion onto a rapidly rotating canvas, allowing the spinning motion to dictate the distribution of colour and pattern. He gave them long, whimsical titles, each beginning with the word ‘beautiful’, whose tripping, cascading rhythms mirrored the frenzied acceleration of the canvas. Vibrant expressions of freedom and spontaneity, the spin paintings ostensibly marked a departure from Hirst’s earlier oeuvre, dominated by dark, witty reflections on human mortality. Ultimately, however, they were powered by the same desire: to understand the forces of chance and determinism that underpin our existence.
As his formaldehyde tanks, medicine cabinets and haunting installations propelled him to notoriety during the early 1990s, Hirst sought to recapture a sense of childlike wonder in his spin paintings. He has explained that they were inspired by an episode of Blue Peter aired in the 1970s, in which presenter John Noakes demonstrated a version of the spinning technique using a motorised cardboard machine. ‘I remember thinking “that’s fun, whereas art is something more serious,”’ he recalls. ‘And then as I got older, I started thinking about van Gogh and all those painters, and cutting your ear off when you’re painting, and at that point I thought, “Why does it have to be like that?” I thought, “No, actually, the better art is the art made with the spin machine.”’ Shortly after this early revelation, Hirst attended a school fete, where he had the opportunity to try his hand at spin painting for the first time. ‘I queued up all day and I was making them over and over again’, he remembers (D. Hirst, quoted in BBC News, ‘Damien Hirst reveals Blue Peter inspiration’, 12 August 2012).
Hirst produced a number of preliminary spin paintings in his Brixton studio as early as 1992. The following year, at Joshua Compston’s legendary street fair A Fête Worse than Death, he set up a spin art stall with fellow artist Angus Fairhust, where visitors were invited to create their own artworks. The performance artist Leigh Bowery famously transformed the pair into clowns for the spectacle: the present work’s title, indeed, conjures a sense of buffoonery and music hall comedy. In 1994, while living in Berlin, Hirst had his own spin machine manufactured, and the series began to take off. Together with the spot paintings, the spin paintings ultimately allowed him to indulge his passion for colour. ‘I believe painting and all art should ultimately be uplifting for a viewer,’ said Hirst. ‘I love colour. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz’ (D. Hirst, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, London 1997, p. 246). The present work thrills with this conviction, its vibrant surface alive with pure, unbridled joy.
As his formaldehyde tanks, medicine cabinets and haunting installations propelled him to notoriety during the early 1990s, Hirst sought to recapture a sense of childlike wonder in his spin paintings. He has explained that they were inspired by an episode of Blue Peter aired in the 1970s, in which presenter John Noakes demonstrated a version of the spinning technique using a motorised cardboard machine. ‘I remember thinking “that’s fun, whereas art is something more serious,”’ he recalls. ‘And then as I got older, I started thinking about van Gogh and all those painters, and cutting your ear off when you’re painting, and at that point I thought, “Why does it have to be like that?” I thought, “No, actually, the better art is the art made with the spin machine.”’ Shortly after this early revelation, Hirst attended a school fete, where he had the opportunity to try his hand at spin painting for the first time. ‘I queued up all day and I was making them over and over again’, he remembers (D. Hirst, quoted in BBC News, ‘Damien Hirst reveals Blue Peter inspiration’, 12 August 2012).
Hirst produced a number of preliminary spin paintings in his Brixton studio as early as 1992. The following year, at Joshua Compston’s legendary street fair A Fête Worse than Death, he set up a spin art stall with fellow artist Angus Fairhust, where visitors were invited to create their own artworks. The performance artist Leigh Bowery famously transformed the pair into clowns for the spectacle: the present work’s title, indeed, conjures a sense of buffoonery and music hall comedy. In 1994, while living in Berlin, Hirst had his own spin machine manufactured, and the series began to take off. Together with the spot paintings, the spin paintings ultimately allowed him to indulge his passion for colour. ‘I believe painting and all art should ultimately be uplifting for a viewer,’ said Hirst. ‘I love colour. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz’ (D. Hirst, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, London 1997, p. 246). The present work thrills with this conviction, its vibrant surface alive with pure, unbridled joy.