Damien Hirst exhibition to show his spin paintings

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The exhibit will focus on Hirst’s spin paintings and his pieces from 1995.

Portakal Art House in Istanbul prepares to host Damien Hirst’s debut solo exhibition. Focusing on his spin paintings, the exhibition will also host his pieces from 1995 through the 2000’s.

According to the artist’s website, “Hirst first experimented with spin art in 1992 at his studio in Brixton, London (‘Beautiful Ray of Sunshine on a Rainy Day Painting’ and ‘Beautiful Where Did all the Colour Go Painting’ (1992)). The following year, he set up a spin art stall with fellow artist Angus Fairhurst at Joshua Compston’s artist-led street fair, ‘A Féte Worse than Death.’ Made-up as clowns by performance artist Leigh Bowery, Fairhurst and Hirst invited visitors to pay one British pound to create their own spin paintings to be signed by the pair.”

The website continues that his spin paintings are characterized by their bright colors and elongated titles that begin with ‘Beautiful’ and end in ‘painting.’ The series began in earnest in 1994, when Hirst had a spin machine made while living in Berlin. A series of his machine-made spin drawings were subsequently exhibited at Bruno Brunnet Contemporary Fine Arts.

The exhibition ‘Making beautiful drawings: an installation,’ invited visitors to the gallery to make their own free drawings on a spin drawing machine made from a drill. The Istanbul exhibition opens on Jan 11.