A signed circular spin painting on paper from Damien Hirst’s iconic spin series, created using a mechanical spinning process that captures movement, chance and exuberant colour in a single fixed moment.

Medium

Acrylic circular spin painting on paper, signed verso

Date

2010

Size

18 inches (45.72 cm) diameter

Studio Label

Label verso from Science, Hirst’s gallery, reference DHS 1390

Window cut verso showing the artist’s large signature and the Science reference number

Framing

Framed by Darbyshire, White Lion Street

Provenance

Science, 14 Welbeck Street, London W1 (Damien Hirst gallery), ref DHS 1390

Private collection

Sotheby’s, Contemporary Art Online, 12 April 2019, Lot 29

Private collection

Hirst’s spin paintings are among the most recognisable images to emerge from British art since the early 1990s. Combining bright Pop colour with controlled chance, they occupy a distinctive position within his practice, balancing spectacle with a clear conceptual proposition. Works with direct Science provenance and an established auction record are particularly desirable, offering both strong visual impact and clear market placement.

This 2010 spin painting is a classic circular composition, built from centrifugal arcs of acrylic thrown outward from the centre. The eye is drawn into a sense of rotation and rhythm, with colour bands and splatters forming a layered surface that feels both energetic and surprisingly ordered.

The work’s circular format heightens the sensation of movement. The paint behaves as both material and record, describing speed, gravity and the physical action of making. Hirst’s spin paintings often read as playful at first glance, yet their strength lies in how directly they present time and process within the finished image.

The elongated title is characteristic of the spin series. It begins with “Beautiful” and ends with “Spin Painting,” echoing the exuberant and almost chant-like language that mirrors the works themselves. The title’s humour and excess sit intentionally against the clarity of the underlying idea: colour, chance and energy captured through a mechanical system.

Within Hirst’s wider work, the spins form a counterpoint to his more austere meditations on mortality. They represent vitality, speed and sensation, celebrating the physical pleasure of paint while remaining conceptually anchored in process and repetition.

Spin paintings sit within a lineage that connects post-war abstraction, action painting and Pop. They nod to the performative energy of Pollock and the serial logic of Warhol, yet their defining characteristic is the use of a machine to generate the image. This places the works within a contemporary dialogue about authorship, control and the role of chance in art.

In the context of the Young British Artists, Hirst became the most visible figure of the generation. The spin paintings, alongside the spot paintings, helped define his public identity and remain among the most collected bodies of work associated with the YBA era.

By 2010 Hirst was a globally established artist operating at the centre of the contemporary art world. This period followed the intense public attention around his late 2000s output and the consolidation of his market, with strong institutional visibility and wide collector demand.

Spin paintings made during this era represent an artist returning to one of his most emblematic formats, reaffirming a visual language that remains instantly identifiable and widely collected.

Hirst’s practice in the late 2000s and early 2010s continued to expand across painting, sculpture and large-scale projects. While the spin paintings operate as a recurring series within the studio, they sit alongside other signature bodies of work that have defined his market and institutional presence, including his spot paintings and his large installations exploring medicine, belief and mortality.

This period also reflects Hirst’s ongoing engagement with systems, repetition and spectacle, themes that have kept his work central to the contemporary canon.

Each spin painting is a unique work, defined by the irreproducible behaviour of paint in motion. While Hirst created many works within the series, strong examples with clear primary provenance from Science, visible reference markings and a coherent colour structure tend to be the most sought after.

The circular format adds further distinctiveness, aligning the work closely with the most iconic presentations of the series.

Damien Hirst remains one of the best known British artists of his generation, with extensive museum exhibition history and a global collector base. The spin paintings have become a defining image of his practice and of the broader YBA moment, frequently reproduced in publications and exhibitions focused on British contemporary art since the 1990s.

The spin series began in the early 1990s and has remained a key part of Hirst’s practice ever since. The format’s enduring appeal lies in its balance of immediacy and concept. Each work is generated through a consistent method, yet every surface is different, shaped by pigment density, timing and speed.

This work sits comfortably within the established spin painting tradition, with the characteristic elongated title and the vibrant centrifugal composition collectors associate with the series.

Spin paintings are made by applying paint to a surface mounted on a spinning platform. As the surface rotates, centrifugal force pulls the paint outward, producing radiating arcs, splashes and concentric movement. The process creates an index of motion and gravity, fixing a performance into a permanent image.

Acrylic lends itself to the method due to its viscosity and drying behaviour, allowing layers and drips to retain crispness and energy.

Hirst’s use of mechanical processes to generate images forms a central thread within his broader investigation of systems and authorship. The spin paintings are often discussed alongside the spot paintings as twin pillars of his practice, each defined by a rule-based approach yet delivering a visually immediate result.

Science, 14 Welbeck Street, London W1, reference DHS 1390

Private collection

Sotheby’s, Contemporary Art Online, 12 April 2019, Lot 29

Private collection

As the most prominent figure associated with the Young British Artists, Damien Hirst helped shape the public face of British contemporary art from the 1990s onward. His work has consistently tested the boundaries between art, commerce and spectacle while maintaining a rigorous commitment to systems, repetition and big themes.

The spin paintings remain among the most approachable and instantly recognisable works within his oeuvre, capturing a sense of exuberance that continues to resonate with collectors.

Hirst’s market has been among the most active and international of any living British artist, supported by strong brand recognition and consistent demand for signature series. Works closely tied to the defining YBA period continue to attract collectors who see the movement as a major chapter in late 20th century art history, with Hirst positioned as its central figure.

Spin paintings with clear provenance from Science and visibility through reputable auction records offer a particularly legible collecting proposition, combining iconic imagery with straightforward documentation.

This 2010 circular spin painting offers strong visual presence, clear series identity and solid provenance beginning with Science, Hirst’s own gallery. The verso details, reference number and subsequent Sotheby’s appearance provide reassuring documentary clarity.

As a work from one of Hirst’s most iconic series, it functions as both a confident statement piece and a recognisable entry into the collecting story of the YBAs, anchored by the artist who remains the movement’s defining front man.

Works presented by Dantzig Gallery are selected for their art historical significance, provenance and enduring cultural relevance.