Name: Throw it Around
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst’s signed etching, Throw it Around, created in 2002, is estimated to be worth between £1,850 and £2,800. This work has an auction history of one sale on 19th July 2023. Over the past five years, the hammer price has shown positive growth, with an average annual growth rate of 8%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 68.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

July 2023

Leonard Joel, Melbourne

Australia

May 2023

Dorotheum, Vienna

Austria

Meaning & Analysis

Throw It Around is one of 14 etchings that make up Damien Hirst’s second volume of The Action of the World Upon Things from 2002. Stemming from Hirst’s Spin Paintings, this etching and others in the series transfers this concept into the print medium. The composition is based in concentric circles, overlain with wiry lines and painterly splatters in bright yellow.

To create the 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.