Up For Auction: A Damien Hirst Spin Painting Owned by David Bowie

This month, Sotheby's announced that it will auction David Bowie's art collection in November, less than a year after the singer passed away. Over the course of two days, the auction house will sell some 400 works of art, but a few standout paintings have grabbed the spotlight. One of these pieces is Damien Hirst's concentric canvas "Beautiful, shattering, slashing, violent, pinky, hacking, sphincter painting," created by the artist in 1995.

The work is one of Hirst's legendary spin paintings, the first of which he painted in 1992. Each brightly colored spin painting has an elongated title that begins with 'Beautiful' and ends with 'Painting' and belies the childlike nature of the works which were made using a spin machine.

Bowie was not among those critics who saw the mechanically-produced paintings as simplistic. The singer said of Hirst: "He's different. I think his work is extremely emotional, subjective, very tied up with his own personal fears–his fear of death is very strong–and I find his pieces moving and not at all flippant."

"Beautiful, shattering, slashing, violent, pinky, hacking, sphincter painting" will be auctioned in London on November 10th as part of the three-part sale Bowie/Collector, and is estimated to sell for between £250,000 and £350,000 ($328,552 - $459,973). But even if you do not have a spare $400,000 right now, you can still see the painting in person—Bowie's collection will be exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and London before the November auction.

From: Town And Country Magazine