Liberty
Liberty
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
POA
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Etching, 2002
Signed Print Edition of 68
H 91cm x W 71cm
Critical Review
Liberty is one of 23 etchings that make up Damien Hirst’s first volume of The Action of The World Upon Things from 2002. Stemming from Hirst’s spin drawings and paintings, this etching and others in the series transfers this concept into the print medium. The composition is based in concentric circles, overlain with painterly splatters in red, yellow and green.
To create In A Spin, The Action Of The World On Things, Hirst attached copper plates to a spin machine in his studio, drawing on them with sharp tools as the machine rotated. The use of the rotating machine is reminiscent of the optical experiments of the Dada artist Marcel Duchamp from the 1920s and ’30s. While Duchamp used motorised spinning devices to create optical illusions, Hirst instead uses a spin machine towards aesthetic and expressionistic ends.
Hirst first produced the original spin paintings in 1993 at the curator Joshua Compston’s mock parish fair, ‘A Fete Worse than Death.’ Hirst performed at this show alongside other artists like Tracey Emin and Gary Hume, disguising himself as a clown. Together with Angus Fairhurst, Hirst made spin paintings using a rotating machine, allowing visitors to participate and create their own artworks.
