Lot 77: Andy Shaw (b.1966)

Out of Eden
acrylic on canvas
178.5 x 178.5 cm. (70 1/4 x 70 1/4 in.)

The Gallerette, London, We Found a Painting by Damien Hirst in a Skip, April 1996.

Jo Knowsley and Catherine Miller, 'Top billing for Damien Hirst spotted in a rubbish skip,' The Sunday Telegraph, 7 April 1996, illustrated in colour.
Owen Bowcott, 'Damien Hirst in a spin over canvas junked in a skip,' The Guardian, 22 April 1996, illustrated in colour.
John Harlow and Robert Tewdwr-Moss, 'Spin children join art's inner circle,' The Sunday Times, 5 May 1996.
Damien Hirst, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, London, 1997, p. 166 (reprint of the The Sunday Times and Guardian articles without illustration).

In early 1996 artist and furniture designer Simon Tyrell discovered the present work in a rubbish skip in Charlotte Street. Believing it to be a discarded spin painting by Damien Hirst, Shoreditch gallerist Adam Dant (a.k.a. Donald Parsnips) featured the work in an exhibition that April, as Dant recalls:

'The exhibition titled WE FOUND A PAINTING BY DAMIEN HIRST IN A SKIP opened at The Gallerette in Shoreditch, London, in 1996 as part of a series of gallery shows without artists.

'The title of the exhibition was intended as an abstract proposition that allowed for an examination of authenticity, provenance, forgery, belief and transformation as notions with the context of the art market.

'The exhibition consisted of the eponymous spin painting found in a skip, an unauthenticated spot painting unseen in a packing crate found in the same skip, a hardware store facsimile of Michael Craig-Martin's Oak Tree, a Bagpuss soft toy belonging to Gavin Turk, an accompanying pamphlet titled On Hygenics by Arnaud Desjardin, a video of Orson Welles' film F is for Fake and a dustbin for the disposal of void private view invitations.

'The exhibition gained considerably more publicity than was intended at the time, possibly touching some of the art world's more fragile nerves and once again exposing the British public's preference to view contemporary art as something suspicious and worthy only of the garbage.'

The exhibition sparked controversy, as reported by the press at the time, with Dant receiving a letter from Jay Jopling of White Cube, demanding a correction of the misattribution. Meanwhile, Andy Shaw came forth to claim authorship. Shaw, potter and painter, was briefly represented by White Cube and was quoted in The Sunday Times (op.cit.): 'I showed Jopling exactly how I had adapted a giant potter's wheel to create these paintings. When I look at Damien's new work all I can think is what an uncanny coincidence.'