September 02, 2012

Hirst’s Inspiration

Damien Hirst, an enfant terrible of the British art scene, has revealed the unlikely source of his inspiration for spin paintings. On a BBC show yesterday, the artist explained that he was inspired by Blue Peter, a television show for children.

Hirst claimed that he was specifically moved by John Noakes’s demonstration of a motorized cardboard spinning machine, which the BBC described as a device for children “who like to paint but are one of those people who never really knows what to draw.”