Name: Lavender Baby
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Meaning & Analysis

Lavender Baby is an etching taken from Damien Hirst’s first volume of the In A Spin, The Action Of The World On Things portfolio from 2002. Primarily made up of concentric circles, this etching is produced with a muted palette and is overlain with paint-like markings. The composition is dynamic in its simplistic use of line that conveys speed and movement.

Lavender Baby is directly related to Hirst’s famed spin paintings, produced with a rotating canvas attached to a spin machine, onto which he poured paint. This series of etchings was produced with copper plates attached to the machine with the spiral lines drawn with needles, screwdrivers, and other sharp tools as they spun. The process of creating these works became a performance-like ritual that continued for numerous days.

Hirst used a mixture of soft and hard ground etching to create this work, which is how the painterly splashes appear on its surface against the stricter circling lines. Also notable to this series of prints is that Hirst writes on the plates, inscribing them with titles, dates and his signature. The writing appears child-like and misshapen due to the fact that Hirst inscribed the letters onto the copperplate backwards, so that when printed they can be read from left to right.