Damien Steven Hirst (; born Brennan on 7 June 1965) is a prominent English artist and art collector. He was a key figure among the Young British Artists (YBAs), a group that significantly influenced the UK art scene throughout the 1990s. Hirst is widely recognized as the wealthiest living artist in the United Kingdom, with his fortune estimated at US$384 million in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List. His professional trajectory during the 1990s was notably intertwined with collector Charles Saatchi; however, escalating disagreements culminated in the dissolution of their partnership in 2003.
Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist, with his wealth estimated at US$384 million in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List. During the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended.
A predominant motif in Hirst's oeuvre is death. He achieved widespread recognition for a series of installations featuring deceased animals—including a shark, a sheep, a pig, and a cow—preserved, and occasionally dissected, in formaldehyde. The most iconic piece from this collection is The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which comprises a 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde within a transparent display case.
In September 2008, Hirst undertook an unprecedented action for a contemporary artist by directly auctioning an entire exhibition, titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's, thereby circumventing his established galleries. This auction generated £111 million ($198 million), establishing a new record for a single-artist auction. It also surpassed Hirst's previous personal record, with £10.3 million paid for The Golden Calf, an artwork depicting an animal with 18-carat gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde.
Since 1999, Hirst's artistic creations have faced 16 allegations of plagiarism. Notably, legal action ensued when his sculpture Hymn was determined to be substantially derived from a child's toy, culminating in an out-of-court settlement.
Early Life and Artistic Training
Damien Steven Brennan, later known as Hirst, was born in Bristol and spent his formative years in Leeds, raised by his Irish mother, who was employed by the Citizens Advice Bureau. He never knew his biological father. His mother remarried when Hirst was two years old, but this marriage ended in divorce a decade later. His stepfather was reportedly a motor mechanic.
Hirst's mother recounted losing control over him during his youth, noting his arrest twice for shoplifting. Hirst characterizes her as intolerant of defiance, citing instances where she destroyed his bondage trousers and melted a Sex Pistols vinyl record on the stove to repurpose it as a fruit bowl or plant pot. He quoted her as stating, "If she didn't like how I was dressed, she would quickly take me away from the bus stop." Despite these conflicts, she fostered his aptitude for drawing, which proved to be his sole academic strength.
At Allerton Grange School, Hirst's art teacher advocated for his admission to the sixth form, where he pursued two A-levels, earning an "E" grade in art. Initially denied entry to Jacob Kramer College, he later enrolled in the institution's Foundation Diploma course following a successful reapplication.
In 1983, Hirst attended an exhibition of Francis Davison's work, curated by Julian Spalding at the Hayward Gallery. Davison's abstract collages, constructed from torn and cut colored paper, profoundly impressed Hirst, who described them as having "blew me away," subsequently influencing his artistic output for the following two years.
After two years working on London construction sites, Hirst pursued Fine Art at Goldsmiths College from 1986 to 1989, having been initially rejected upon his first application. In 2007, Hirst remarked on An Oak Tree by Goldsmiths' senior tutor, Michael Craig-Martin, stating, "That piece is, I think, the greatest piece of conceptual sculpture. I still can't get it out of my head." During his studies, Hirst undertook a placement at a mortuary, an experience that profoundly shaped his subsequent artistic themes and material choices. Concurrently, as an art student, Hirst also served as an assistant at Anthony d'Offay's gallery.
Early Career: Student and Warehouse Exhibitions
In July 1988, during his second year at Goldsmiths College, Hirst served as the primary organizer of an independent student exhibition, Freeze, held in a decommissioned administrative building of the London Port Authority in London's Docklands. He secured sponsorship for this event from the London Docklands Development Corporation. The exhibition was attended by Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal, and Nicholas Serota, a Hirst's personal contribution to the show featured a collection of cardboard boxes coated with household paint. Following his graduation, Hirst was included in the New Contemporaries exhibition and a group show at Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge. In pursuit of gallery representation, he initially contacted Karsten Schubert, who declined representation.
In 1990, Hirst collaborated with Carl Freedman and Billee Sellman to organize two ambitious "warehouse" exhibitions, Modern Medicine and Gambler, within a former Peek Freans biscuit factory in Bermondsey, which they named "Building One." Saatchi attended the second exhibition, arriving in a green Rolls-Royce. According to Freedman, Saatchi was visibly astonished by, and subsequently purchased, Hirst's inaugural significant "animal" installation, A Thousand Years, which comprised a substantial glass vitrine housing maggots and flies consuming a decomposing cow's head. Additionally, they presented Michael Landy's Market. During this period, Hirst articulated his perspective, stating, "I can't wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. At the moment if I did certain things people would look at it, consider it and then say 'f off'. But after a while you can get away with things."
Professional Career
1987–1990
1987 – Joint exhibition by Damien Hirst and Holden Rowan, Old Court Gallery, Windsor Arts Centre, Windsor, UK – Curated by Derek Culley
1988 – Solo exhibition: Damien Hirst: Constructions and Sculpture, Old Court Gallery, Windsor, UK – Curated by Derek Culley
1988 – Freeze, Surrey Docks, London, UK
1989 – New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
1990 – Modern Medicine, Building One, London, UK
1990 – Gambler, Building One, London, UK
1990 – Building One, Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery, Paris, FR
1991–1994
His first solo exhibition, In and Out of Love, organized by Tamara Chodzko (now known as Dial), was staged in 1991 within a vacant retail space on Woodstock Street in central London. Notably, he had previously participated in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris in 1989. The Serpentine Gallery subsequently showcased the inaugural survey of this emerging artistic generation through the exhibition Broken English, which Hirst co-curated. In 1991, Hirst encountered the burgeoning art dealer Jay Jopling, who subsequently became his representative.
In 1991, Charles Saatchi extended an offer to finance any artwork Hirst wished to create. This collaboration culminated in 1992 with the presentation of the inaugural Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in North London. Hirst's contribution, titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, featured a shark preserved in formaldehyde within a vitrine, and was sold for £50,000. The specimen, a shark, had been procured by a commissioned fisherman in Australia at a cost of £6,000. The exhibition also featured In a Thousand Years. Consequently, Hirst received a nomination for the Turner Prize in the same year; however, the award was ultimately conferred upon Grenville Davey.
In 1993, Hirst's inaugural significant international exhibition at the Venice Biennale featured the artwork Mother and Child Divided, which comprised a cow and a calf sectioned and displayed within a series of distinct vitrines. The following year, he curated the exhibition Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away at the Serpentine Gallery in London, showcasing his piece Away from the Flock, which consisted of a sheep preserved in a formaldehyde tank. On May 9th, Mark Bridger, an artist aged 35 from Oxford, entered the gallery and introduced black ink into the tank, subsequently renaming the artwork Black Sheep. Following Hirst's request, Bridger was prosecuted and received a two-year probationary sentence. The restoration of the sculpture incurred a cost of £1,000. In 1997, when a photograph of Away from the Flock appeared in Hirst's book, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one-to-one, always, forever, now, the act of vandalism was acknowledged through a visual representation: a card was used to obscure the tank, simulating the effect of ink being poured into it. This depiction led to Bridger initiating a lawsuit against Hirst, alleging copyright infringement concerning his work Black Sheep.
1995–1999
Hirst was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995. New York public health authorities prohibited the exhibition of Two Fucking and Two Watching, an artwork depicting a decomposing cow and bull, citing concerns about potential "vomiting among the visitors." Concurrently, solo exhibitions of his work were presented in Seoul, London, and Salzburg. He also directed the music video for Blur's song Country House. The subsequent year marked his inaugural solo exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, titled No Sense of Absolute Corruption. In London, the short film Hanging Around, written and directed by Hirst and featuring Eddie Izzard, was screened. The Sensation exhibition commenced at the Royal Academy in London in 1997. While A Thousand Years and other Hirst pieces were featured, the primary controversies arose from the works of other participating artists. Nevertheless, this exhibition was widely regarded as the formal integration of the Young British Artists (YBAs) into the established art world.
His autobiography and art book, titled I Want To Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, was released in 1997. Collaborating with Alex James from the band Blur and actor Keith Allen, Hirst co-founded the band Fat Les, which achieved a number two chart position with the boisterous football-themed song Vindaloo, subsequently followed by Jerusalem, performed with the London Gay Men's Chorus. Hirst additionally designed a straightforward color pattern for the Beagle 2 probe. This design was intended for calibrating the probe's cameras post-landing on Mars. He declined the British Council's invitation to represent the UK at the 1999 Venice Biennale, stating that "it didn't feel right." Furthermore, he threatened legal action against British Airways, alleging copyright infringement concerning an advertisement design featuring colored spots for their budget airline, Go.
2000–2004
In 2000, Hirst's sculpture Hymn, reportedly acquired by Saatchi for £1 million, occupied a prominent position at the Ant Noises exhibition (an anagram of "sensation") at the Saatchi Gallery. Subsequently, Hirst faced a lawsuit for copyright infringement related to this sculpture. Hirst proceeded to sell three additional copies of the sculpture for comparable sums. In September 2000, Larry Gagosian presented the Hirst exhibition, Damien Hirst: Models, Methods, Approaches, Assumptions, Results and Findings, in New York. The exhibition attracted 100,000 visitors over a twelve-week period, with all displayed works being sold.
On September 10, 2002, the day preceding the first anniversary of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, Hirst made the following statement during an interview with BBC News Online:
The thing about 9/11 is that it's kind of like an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually... You've got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America. So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing.
The subsequent week, in response to widespread public indignation regarding his comments, he released a statement via his company, Science Ltd:
I apologise unreservedly for any upset I have caused, particularly to the families of the victims of the events on that terrible day.
In 2002, Hirst ceased smoking and drinking following complaints from his wife, Maia, who reportedly "had to move out because I was so horrible." He had established a close friendship with Joe Strummer, former lead singer of The Clash, after meeting him at Glastonbury in 1995, and they subsequently took annual family holidays together. Strummer's death from a heart attack just before Christmas 2002 profoundly impacted Hirst, who remarked, "It was the first time I felt mortal." Consequently, Hirst dedicated significant effort to establishing Strummerville, a charitable organization supporting emerging musicians.
In April 2003, the Saatchi Gallery inaugurated its new location in County Hall, London, with an exhibition featuring a retrospective of Hirst's work. This event exacerbated growing tensions in Hirst's relationship with Saatchi, partly due to disagreements over who was primarily responsible for enhancing their shared public image. Hirst publicly distanced himself from the retrospective, notably omitting it from his curriculum vitae. His dissatisfaction stemmed from the exhibition of a Mini car, which he had adorned with his signature spots for a charitable cause, as a serious artistic piece. Furthermore, the exhibition undermined plans for a potential Hirst retrospective at Tate Modern. Hirst characterized Saatchi as "childish" and asserted, "I'm not Charles Saatchi's barrel-organ monkey... He only recognises art with his wallet... he believes he can affect art values with buying power, and he still believes he can do it."
In September 2003, Hirst presented the exhibition Romance in the Age of Uncertainty at Jay Jopling's White Cube gallery in London, reportedly generating £11 million and increasing his net worth to over £35 million. During this period, the sculpture Charity was reportedly acquired for £1.5 million by Kim Chang-Il, a Korean collector, who planned to display it in his department store's gallery in Seoul. This 22-foot (6.7m), 6-ton sculpture drew inspiration from the 1960s Spastic Society's fundraising model, which depicted a girl in leg irons holding a collection box. Hirst's rendition, however, portrays the collection box as broken and empty.
The sculpture Charity was displayed prominently in the center of Hoxton Square, positioned before the White Cube gallery. Within the gallery's lower level, twelve vitrines were arranged, symbolizing Jesus's disciples; each contained predominantly gruesome, frequently blood-stained artifacts pertinent to the respective disciple. An empty vitrine concluded the display, representing Christ. The upper level featured four smaller glass cases, each encasing a cow's head impaled with scissors and knives. This exhibition has been characterized as an "extraordinarily spiritual experience," aligning with the tradition of Catholic iconography. Concurrently, Hirst repurchased twelve early works from Saatchi, representing one-third of Saatchi's collection of Hirst's initial pieces, through Jay Jopling, reportedly for over £8 million. Hirst had originally sold these installations to Saatchi in the early 1990s for significantly lower prices, with his initial works costing under £10,000.
On May 24, 2004, a fire at the Momart storage warehouse resulted in the destruction of numerous artworks from the Saatchi collection, including seventeen pieces by Hirst. However, the sculpture Charity remained intact, as it was located outdoors in a builder's yard. In July of that year, Hirst commented on his relationship with Saatchi, stating, "I respect Charles. There's not really a feud. If I see him, we speak, but we were never really drinking buddies."
In late 2004, Hirst created a cover image for the Band Aid 20 charity single, depicting the "Grim Reaper" with an African child seated on his knee. This design, however, was deemed unsuitable by record company executives and was subsequently replaced with an image of reindeer in the snow alongside a child.
In December 2004, the artwork The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living was acquired from Saatchi by American collector Steve Cohen for $8 million, a transaction facilitated by Hirst's New York agent, Gagosian. Cohen, a Greenwich-based hedge fund manager, subsequently donated the piece to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Previously, Sir Nicholas Serota had expressed interest in acquiring the work for the Tate Gallery, and Hugo Swire, then Shadow Minister for the Arts, had formally questioned whether the government would intervene to retain the artwork within the country.
2005–2009
In March 2005, Hirst showcased thirty paintings at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. These works, which required three and a half years to complete, were primarily derived from photographs, largely executed by assistants who rotated between projects, with Hirst applying the final touches. Additionally, in 2005, Hirst established Other Criteria, an art book publishing company.
In February 2006, Hirst inaugurated a significant exhibition in Mexico at the Hilario Galguera Gallery, titled The Death of God, Towards a Better Understanding of Life without God aboard The Ship of Fools. This event garnered substantial media attention, marking his debut show in Latin America. Later that year, in June, he presented his work alongside Francis Bacon's (Triptychs) at the Gagosian Gallery on Britannia Street in London. This exhibition featured the vitrine A Thousand Years (1990), four triptychs comprising paintings and medicine cabinets, and a new formaldehyde piece, The Tranquility of Solitude (For George Dyer), which drew inspiration from Bacon's oeuvre.
The artwork A Thousand Years (1990) depicts a complete biological life cycle. Within a minimalist white box, maggots emerge, transform into flies, and subsequently consume a severed, bloody cow's head situated on the base of a confined glass vitrine. Above this, newly hatched flies circulate within the enclosed environment. A significant number perish violently in an insect-o-cutor, while others persist, perpetuating the cycle. Francis Bacon expressed admiration for A Thousand Years, noting his experience of viewing the piece at the Saatchi Gallery in London in a letter to a friend written a month before his death. Margarita Coppack observes, "It is as if Bacon, a painter with no direct heir in that medium, was handing the baton on to a new generation." Hirst has explicitly recognized his artistic indebtedness to Bacon, internalizing the painter's raw imagery and thematic preoccupations early in his career and manifesting them sculpturally in pieces such as A Thousand Years.
In June 2007, Hirst established a world record for the most expensive artwork by a living artist with his piece Lullaby Spring. This artwork, a 3-meter-wide steel cabinet containing 6,136 pills, was acquired for 19.2 million dollars by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar.
June 2007 marked the opening of Beyond Belief, an exhibition showcasing Hirst's recent creations, at the White Cube gallery in London. The central artwork, a Memento Mori titled For the Love of God, comprised a human skull meticulously recreated in platinum and embellished with 8,601 diamonds, collectively weighing 1,106.18 carats. The diamonds alone represented an approximate value of £15,000,000. While modeled after an 18th-century skull, the only authentic human component retained from the original was the teeth. Initially priced at £50,000,000 ($100 million or 75 million euros), For the Love of God did not sell immediately. However, on August 30, 2008, it was acquired by a consortium, which notably included Hirst himself and his gallery, White Cube.
In November 2008, the diamond-encrusted skull was displayed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, presented alongside an exhibition of paintings from the museum's permanent collection, personally curated by Hirst. Wim Pijbes, the director of the museum, commented on the exhibition's impact, stating, "It boosts our image. Of course, we do the Old Masters but we are not a 'yesterday institution'. It's for now. And Damien Hirst shows this in a very strong way."
In a comprehensive article exploring the interconnected histories of European art and double-entry bookkeeping, art historian Rachel Cohen offered her commentary on the Rijksmuseum exhibition and the artwork more broadly, stating:
Two years [after the sale of For the Love of God], amidst widespread financial market collapse, reports emerged indicating that the artwork had actually been acquired by a holding company. This entity was subsequently revealed to comprise Hirst's gallerist, his business manager, his associate and Russian billionaire art collector Viktor Pinchuk, and Hirst himself. Consequently, individuals observing their depleted stock portfolios perceived the artwork's title as a fitting articulation of their sentiments. The piece itself, characterized by its diamond-encrusted eye sockets and the original skull's grinning teeth, appears unaffected by any perceived void in value within either the financial or art markets. This cynical embodiment of our opulent era remains indifferent to whether its creation was motivated by anything other than the pursuit of greater monetary figures.
In December 2008, Hirst contacted the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) demanding action regarding works that incorporated images of his skull sculpture For the Love of God, created by the 16-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain and offered for sale online. Following counsel from his gallery, Cartrain surrendered the artworks to DACS and relinquished the £200 profit he had earned. Cartrain reported that Christian Zimmermann of DACS confirmed Hirst's direct directive for the action. In June 2009, copyright lawyer Paul Tackaberry analyzed the two images, stating that the legal case was "fairly non-contentious." He emphasized that copyright infringement hinges on whether a "substantial portion" of the "original" work, considering both quantity and quality, is present in the new creation. Tackaberry noted that "Quantitatively about 80% of the skull is in the second image."
From April to September 2009, the exhibition Requiem was presented at the Victor Pinchuk Art Centre.
In October 2009, Hirst disclosed that he had personally been creating paintings in a style demonstrably influenced by Francis Bacon for several years. An exhibition of these works, titled No Love Lost, was held at the Wallace Collection in London.
2010–2014
In 2011, Damien Hirst created the album cover for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album I'm with You.
A rendition of the British Union Flag by Hirst served as the central arena installation for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. In January 2013, Hirst became the third British artist commissioned to design the Brit Awards statue, employing his distinctive Neo-Pop art style, which drew inspiration from his 2000 "spot painting" series. In October 2014, Hirst presented large-scale sculptures of capsules, pills, and medicines at the Paul Stolper Gallery under the title Schizophrenogenesis.
2015–present
In April 2016, a study published in Analytical Methods asserted that formaldehyde gas emissions from Hirst's preserved animal carcasses at Tate Modern exceeded legal thresholds; subsequent analysis, however, revealed methodological flaws in this study.
In 2017, in collaboration with the Pinault Foundation, Hirst mounted a solo exhibition in Venice, coinciding with the Biennale, across two venues: Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana. The exhibition, titled Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, purported to display ancient treasures recovered from a sunken Greek vessel, featuring artifacts ranging from items resembling ancient Egyptian relics to reproductions of Disney characters, all adorned with shells and corals.
From July 2021 to January 2022, Hirst's series Cherry Blossoms was presented at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Subsequently, the exhibition relocated to the National Art Center in Tokyo in 2022. This marked Hirst's inaugural major solo exhibition in Japan.
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
This artwork comprises a large tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde. The multi-sectioned tank containing the shark creates the optical illusion of the animal being segmented into three distinct parts. The work was created in 1991, and over time, the formaldehyde solution has gradually degraded the shark's body, manifesting visible signs of decay. Hirst posits that the formaldehyde encasing the shark symbolizes the processes of death and decomposition.
Some critics contend that the work's minimalist attributes, coupled with its 'stereotypical' exploration of death, are unduly simplistic for an artist of Hirst's stature. Critic Craig Raine notably observed, "But the famous shark, shackled to its coffeebar-existentialist title – The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living – seems ever more dilapidated, more fairground sideshow, with every dowdy showing. What clichéd menace it may once have theoretically possessed has evaporated."
Art critic Luke White, in his essay Damien Hirst's Shark: Nature, Capitalism and the Sublime, links the artwork to the "Burkean Sublime" concept. However, he disputes Hirst's assertion that the shark functions as a primordial, universal instigator of human terror, instead examining historical and geographical variations in perceptions of sharks, both actual and depicted. From this perspective, White characterizes Hirst not as an exemplary artist, but as a symptomatic figure whose work illuminates contemporary society. He interprets the artwork as embodying the inherent contradictions and anxieties of modern existence, exacerbated by capitalist systems and escalating concerns regarding environmental catastrophe, which imperil human power, progress, and wealth, potentially leading to complete devastation.
Beautiful Inside My Head Forever
The event titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever constituted a two-day auction of Hirst's recent creations, held at Sotheby's in London on September 15 and 16, 2008. This auction was notable for Hirst's direct engagement with the public, circumventing traditional gallery channels. According to Cahal Milmo, writing for The Independent, the auction concept originated with Frank Dunphy, Hirst's business advisor of thirteen years, who persuaded an initially hesitant Hirst. Hirst subsequently advocated for the auction, dismissing allegations that his primary motivation was financial gain:
There is a persistent concern that financial considerations compromise artistic integrity; however, I have always found it reprehensible that artists such as Van Gogh achieved no financial success. It is crucial to prioritize the art above monetary gain. Many individuals fear a loss of integrity in such circumstances. Frank once advised me: "Always ensure that you leverage money to pursue art, rather than allowing art to pursue money." I believe this principle holds true and requires careful consideration.
This sale generated £111 million ($198 million) from 218 lots. The auction significantly surpassed projections, establishing a new Sotheby's record for a single-artist sale by a factor of ten, notably occurring amidst a severe downturn in global financial markets. The Sunday Times reported that Hirst's business associates had supported the sale prices through purchases or bids, which collectively accounted for more than half of the £70.5 million expended on the initial day of the sale. Harry Blain, representing the Haunch of Venison gallery, confirmed that bids were placed on behalf of clients interested in acquiring the artworks.
Hirst's Art Collection
In November 2006, Hirst curated In the darkest hour there may be light at the Serpentine Gallery, London, which marked the inaugural public display of a segment of his personal collection. This substantial compilation, now designated the 'murderme collection', encompasses works by multiple generations of international artists. It features prominent figures like Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin, Richard Prince, Banksy, and Andy Warhol, alongside British painters such as John Bellany, John Hoyland, and Gary Hume, as well as emerging artists including Rachel Howard, David Choe, Ross Minoru Laing, Nicholas Lumb, Tom Ormond, and Dan Baldwin.
Hirst is presently undertaking the restoration of Toddington Manor, a Grade I listed property near Cheltenham, with the ultimate goal of housing his entire collection there. In 2007, he gifted several pieces from his personal collection to Tate, including the 1991 sculptures The Acquired Inability to Escape and Life Without You, the 2002 work Who is Afraid of the Dark? (a fly painting), and a 2007 exhibition copy of Mother and Child Divided.
In 2010, Hirst was an unsuccessful contender in the bid to acquire the Magazine Building, a nineteenth-century edifice situated in Kensington Gardens, which was subsequently transformed by Zaha Hadid and reopened in 2013 as the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. By March 2012, Hirst had articulated intentions to establish a gallery in Vauxhall, London, dedicated to showcasing his private collection, notably featuring five works by Francis Bacon. The Newport Street Gallery commenced operations in October 2015. This institution occupies former theater carpentry and scenery production workshops, which were reconfigured by Peter St John and Adam Caruso, extending along Newport Street in Vauxhall.
Awards and Recognition
Hirst received a nomination for the Turner Prize in 1992, recognizing his inaugural Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in North London, which featured his work The Physical Impossibility of Death.... The award for that year was ultimately conferred upon Grenville Davey.
Damien Hirst received the Turner Prize in 1995. He declined invitations to represent the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and to become a Royal Academician.
In 2012, Sir Peter Blake included Hirst among the British cultural icons featured in a reimagined version of the Beatles' album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a tribute to the British cultural figures Blake most admired throughout his life.
Critical Reception
Favorable Assessments
Hirst has garnered acclaim for his celebrity status, which has significantly stimulated interest in the arts, elevated the visibility of British art, and contributed to the "Cool Britannia" cultural phenomenon. During the mid-1990s, Virginia Bottomley, then Heritage Secretary, acknowledged him as "a pioneer of the British art movement." Even sheep farmers reportedly appreciated the increased interest he generated in British lamb. Janet Street-Porter commended his originality, noting its capacity to engage new audiences and likening its impact to the "art-world equivalent of the Oasis concerts at Earl's Court."
Andres Serrano, an artist also recognized for provocative work, acknowledged that contemporary renown does not guarantee enduring fame but expressed support for Hirst, stating, "Damien is very clever ... First you get the attention ... Whether or not it will stand the test of time, I don't know, but I think it will." Sir Nicholas Serota remarked, "Damien is something of a showman ... It is very difficult to be an artist when there is huge public and media attention. Because Damien Hirst has been built up as a very important figure, there are plenty of sceptics ready to put the knife in."
Tracey Emin asserted, "There is no comparison between him and me; he developed a whole new way of making art and he's clearly in a league of his own. It would be like making comparisons with Warhol." Despite Hirst's past criticisms directed at him, Saatchi has consistently remained a steadfast advocate, characterizing Hirst as a genius and articulating the following perspective:
General art books dated 2105 will be as brutal about editing the late 20th century as they are about almost all other centuries. Every artist other than Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst will be a footnote.
In 2011, Blake Gopnik included Hirst in his list, "The 10 Most Important Artists of Today," interpreting Hirst's career as "a metaphor for how consumption has become our guiding force."
Critical Perspectives
Hirst's oeuvre has also encountered equally strong opposition. Brian Sewell, formerly an art critic for the Evening Standard, articulated his view on Hirst's work: "I don't think of it as art ... It is no more interesting than a stuffed pike over a pub door. Indeed there may well be more art in a stuffed pike than a dead sheep."
The Stuckist art group, established in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish, was founded with an explicit anti-Britart agenda, identifying Hirst as one of their primary targets. In reference to a Channel 4 program about Hirst, they commented:
The fact that Hirst's work does mirror society is not its strength but its weakness – and the reason it is guaranteed to decline artistically (and financially) as current social modes become outmoded. What Hirst has insightfully observed of his spin-paintings in Life and Death and Damien Hirst is the only comment that needs to be made of his entire oeuvre: "They're bright and they're zany – but there's fuck all there at the end of the day."
In 2003, the Stuckism International Gallery presented an exhibition titled A Dead Shark Isn't Art, featuring a shark that Eddie Saunders had publicly displayed in his Shoreditch shop, JD Electrical Supplies, two years prior to Hirst's similar work. Thomson posed the question, "If Hirst's shark is recognised as great art, then how come Eddie's, which was on exhibition for two years beforehand, isn't? Do we perhaps have here an undiscovered artist of genius, who got there first, or is it that a dead shark isn't art at all?" The Stuckists posited that Hirst might have derived the concept for his artwork from Saunders' shop display.
In a 2008 Channel 4 documentary titled The Mona Lisa Curse, art critic Robert Hughes characterized Hirst's creations as "tacky" and "absurd." Hughes expressed astonishment that a valuation of £5 million was assigned to Hirst's Virgin Mother, a 35-foot bronze sculpture, given its perceived lack of artistic facility. He further dismissed Hirst's formaldehyde shark as "the world's most over-rated marine organism" and criticized the artist for operating akin to a "commercial brand," asserting that Hirst's oeuvre exemplified the reduction of art's meaning solely to its financial worth.
Hirst's 2009 exhibition, No Love Lost, featuring his self-painted works at the Wallace Collection in London, garnered "one of the most unanimously negative responses to any exhibition in living memory." Tom Lubbock of The Independent described Hirst's paintings as derivative, weak, and uninspired, remarking that "Hirst, as a painter, is at about the level of a not-very-promising, first-year art student." Rachel Campbell-Johnston of The Times deemed the work "shockingly bad." A subsequent 2012 exhibition of Hirst's paintings at the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey, titled "Two Weeks One Summer," prompted The Guardian to comment that Hirst "can kid himself he is an Old Master and have the art world go along with the fantasy."
Julian Spalding, a British art critic and author of the book Con Art – Why You Should Sell Your Damien Hirsts While You Can, has articulated the following perspective:
It has frequently been proposed, with serious intent, that Damien Hirst surpasses Michelangelo as an artist because he conceived the idea of a shark in a tank, whereas Michelangelo did not conceive his David. However, the reality is that the emperor is unclothed. When the realization dawns that these works are not art, the entire edifice will collapse. Hirst's presence in the Tate is unwarranted; he is not an artist. The fundamental distinction between Michelangelo and Hirst lies in Michelangelo's status as an artist, which Hirst does not share.
Hirst's 2012 retrospective at the Tate Gallery, despite achieving record attendance figures, also generated numerous complaints. Public correspondence to the state-funded gallery accused it of misallocating taxpayer funds by exhibiting art deemed "repetitive," "meaningless," and "almost universally awful."
Hirst's artistic output has also been a frequent subject of critique within the tabloid press. A Daily Mail headline declared: "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all." Norman Tebbit, in his commentary on the Sensation exhibition, questioned the sanity of its proponents, stating: "The works of the 'artist' are lumps of dead animals. There are thousands of young artists who didn't get a look in, presumably because their work was too attractive to sane people. Modern art experts never learn."
Backdating Claims
In March 2024, The Guardian reported that four of Hirst's formaldehyde animal works, officially dated to the 1990s by his company Science Ltd., were in fact produced in 2017. These four pieces involved the preservation of a dove, two sharks, and two calves in formaldehyde. In response, Science Ltd. asserted that the dates assigned by the artist to these works signified their conceptualization dates, not their fabrication dates.
In May 2024, The Guardian disclosed that at least 1,000 dot paintings on A4 paper, part of an art project titled The Currency, which Hirst had repeatedly claimed were "made in 2016" and bore the inscribed year '2016' alongside his signature, were actually created several years later than stated. In response, legal representatives for Hirst and Science Ltd. did not dispute that at least 1,000 paintings dated 2016 were produced subsequently, but contended that it was Hirst's "usual practice" to date conceptual art projects with their conception date.
Appropriation and Plagiarism Claims
In 1999, chef Marco Pierre White alleged that Hirst's Butterflies on Mars plagiarized his own creation, Rising Sun, which White subsequently displayed in the restaurant Quo Vadis, replacing Hirst's work.
In 2000, Hirst faced a copyright infringement lawsuit concerning his sculpture, Hymn. This artwork was a 20-foot (6.1 m), six-ton enlargement of his son Connor's 14-inch Young Scientist Anatomy Set, originally designed by Norman Emms. Annually, 10,000 units of this toy are sold by the Hull-based manufacturer Humbrol for £14.99 each. Hirst resolved the dispute through an out-of-court settlement, which included an undisclosed payment to two charities, Children Nationwide and the Toy Trust, along with a "goodwill payment" to Emms. Emms, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of the charitable donation. Additionally, Hirst agreed to restrictions on any future reproductions of his sculpture.
In 2006, Robert Dixon, a graphic artist, former research associate at the Royal College of Art, and author of 'Mathographics', alleged that Hirst's print Valium bore "unmistakable similarities" to one of Dixon's own designs. Hirst's manager countered this claim by asserting that Hirst's work originated from the book The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry (1991), inadvertently overlooking that this publication was one of the venues where Dixon's design had previously appeared.
In 2007, artist John LeKay, who maintained a friendship with Damien Hirst from 1992 to 1994, was reported by Dalya Alberge of The Times to have provided conceptual inspiration for several of Hirst's subsequent works. LeKay specifically mentioned furnishing Hirst with a "marked-up duplicate copy" of a Carolina Biological Supply Company catalogue, which LeKay had utilized for his own artistic inspiration and material sourcing. LeKay remarked, "You have no idea how much he got from this catalogue. The Cow Divided is on page 647—it is a model of a cow divided down the centre, like his piece," referencing Hirst's artwork Mother and Child, Divided, which features a cow and calf bisected and preserved in formaldehyde. LeKay further suggested that Hirst's concept for For the Love of God was derived from LeKay's own crystal skull work in 1993, stating, "I would like Damien to acknowledge that 'John really did inspire the skull and influenced my work a lot.'" However, copyright lawyer Paul Tackaberry, after reviewing images of both LeKay's and Hirst's works, concluded that there was no legal basis for an appropriation claim constituting copyright infringement.
In 2010, Charles Thomson, writing in both 3:AM Magazine and The Jackdaw, asserted that Hirst had plagiarized the work of others in 15 distinct instances. Among the examples cited were Hirst's enlarged anatomical torso model, Hymn (1999), which Thomson juxtaposed with John LeKay's comparable anatomical torso model, Yin and Yang (1990), sourced from Carolina Science. Another comparison involved Hirst's In Nomine Patris [In the Name of the Father] (2005), depicting a split-open crucified sheep in a formaldehyde tank, presented alongside John LeKay's similarly posed split-open crucified sheep, titled This is My Body, This is My Blood (1987) and mounted on a wooden board. Further examples included the resemblance between Hirst's cabinets featuring shelves and bottles, such as My Way (1991), which evolved into his room-sized installation Pharmacy (1992), and Joseph Cornell's cabinet display, Pharmacy (1943). Thomson also highlighted Hirst's alleged appropriation of a concept from Lori Precious, who had created stained-glass window effects using butterfly wings since 1994, several years prior to Hirst. The art gallery lemon sky: projects + editions exhibited a selection of Precious's works at the Year 06 Contemporary Art Fair in London in October 2006, where they were widely viewed, lending credibility to the plagiarism claims at that time. Thomson additionally posited that Hirst's spin paintings and installations involving a ball on a jet of air lacked originality, given the existence of similar works in the 1960s. A spokesperson for Hirst dismissed the article as "poor journalism" and announced that Hirst would issue a "comprehensive" rebuttal to the allegations.
In May 2017, Hirst faced accusations of copying and appropriating Yoruba art from Ilé-Ifẹ̀ in his work Golden Heads (Female), which was featured in his exhibition Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable at the Venice Biennale. Critics contended that the artwork was presented without adequate contextual information for viewers.
Reflecting on his personal collection, Hirst articulated his perspective, stating, "As a human being, as you go through life, you just do collect. It was that sort of entropic collecting that I found myself interested in, just amassing stuff while you're alive."
In 2022, artist and writer Joe Machine formally accused Hirst of plagiarizing his cherry blossom paintings, marking the sixteenth such allegation against Hirst.
Hirst's Business Ventures
Philosophical Approach to Work
While Hirst was physically involved in the creation of his initial works, he consistently relied on assistants, such as Carl Freedman, who contributed to the first vitrines. The substantial volume of his current artistic output necessitates a "factory" production model. This approach has generated discussions regarding authenticity, notably in 1997, when a spin painting Hirst labeled a "forgery" was offered for sale, despite his prior statements indicating minimal involvement in the creation of such pieces.
Hirst stated that he personally painted only five spot paintings, attributing this limited involvement to a lack of inclination, remarking, "I couldn't be fucking arsed doing it." He characterized his own attempts as "shite," elaborating, "They're shit compared to ... the best person who ever painted spots for me was Rachel. She's brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant. The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel." He further recounted an instance where a departing assistant requested one of his paintings. Hirst advised her to "'make one of your own,'" to which she responded, "'No, I want one of yours.' But the only difference, between one painted by her and one of mine, is the money.'" By February 1999, two assistants had completed 300 spot paintings. Hirst posits that the true creative act resides in the conceptualization rather than the execution, asserting his role as the artist by virtue of originating the idea:
Art originates in one's mind... An interesting remark could serve as a title for an artwork, which I would then record. Art emanates from all sources; it is an individual's reaction to their environment. I have been developing certain ideas for years, such as the methodology for creating a rainbow within a gallery space. I consistently maintain an extensive inventory of titles, concepts for exhibitions, and untitled works.
Hirst is also recognized for voluntarily undertaking repair work on his art projects subsequent to a client's acquisition. This service, for instance, was provided for the suspended shark artwork purchased by Steven A. Cohen.
Restaurant Ventures
Hirst engaged in a brief partnership with chef Marco Pierre White at the restaurant Quo Vadis. His most prominent involvement in the restaurant industry was with Pharmacy, situated in Notting Hill, London, which ceased operations in 2004. Despite being a co-owner, Hirst had merely leased his artworks to the establishment, enabling him to reclaim and subsequently sell them at a Sotheby's auction, generating over £11 million. Certain pieces had been modified, for example, by being signed before the auction.
Hirst is a co-owner of 11 The Quay, a seafood restaurant located in the English coastal town of Ilfracombe. In 2016, Damien Hirst undertook the interior design for his new restaurant, Pharmacy 2, situated within the Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, London.
Financial Standing
Artworks by Hirst, sold at his 2008 auction titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, generated US$198 million. This sum is reportedly the highest achieved by any living artist to date, solidifying Hirst's reputation as the wealthiest living artist. The 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, an annual compilation of the wealthiest individuals in Britain and Ireland, ranked Hirst jointly at number 238 with an estimated net worth of £235 million. By the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List, Hirst's wealth was assessed at £215 million, designating him as Britain's wealthiest artist.
Published, Exhibited, and Sold Works
Written Contributions
- Hirst, Damien (2014). The Complete Spot Paintings. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1906967482. Accessed 22 February 2017.—— (2013). ABC. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1906967635. Accessed 22 February 2017.Artworks
Notable works include:
Personal Life
From 1992 to 2012, Hirst resided with his American partner, Maia Norman, with whom he shares three sons, born in 1995, 2000, and 2005.
Following the birth of his children, Hirst has primarily resided at his secluded farmhouse located near Combe Martin in Devon. Hirst and Norman never formally married, though Hirst had previously referred to Norman as his "common-law wife."
Hirst has acknowledged significant issues with drug and alcohol abuse spanning a decade, commencing in the early 1990s, stating he became "a babbling wreck." During this period, he was recognized for his erratic conduct and unconventional actions, such as publicly inserting a cigarette into his penis in the presence of journalists.
He maintains friendships with Ronnie Wood, the guitarist for the Rolling Stones, and Ronnie O'Sullivan, a seven-time World Snooker Champion.
Philanthropic Engagements
Hirst actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to indigenous rights. In September 2008, he contributed his artwork, Beautiful Love Survival, to Sotheby's London auction, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, specifically to generate funds for this organization. Subsequently, he also authored a piece for the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, published in October 2009, further demonstrating his support for Survival. This publication examines the global presence of indigenous cultures and the challenges they confront.
In 2016, he contributed artworks to the confidential auction organized by Art on a Postcard, a charitable initiative dedicated to combating Hepatitis C.
Non-Fungible Tokens
In July 2021, Hirst unveiled his inaugural non-fungible token (NFT) initiative, titled The Currency. This project comprised 10,000 distinct, hand-painted, dot-covered works on paper, each paired with a unique NFT. Within two months, the project generated a total revenue of $25,000,000. Hirst mandated that purchasers of these pieces select either the tangible artwork or its corresponding NFT. Buyers were notified that physical artworks associated with unexchanged NFTs would be incinerated; the initial 1,000 works were destroyed on October 11, 2022. Hirst broadcasted the burning of these physical pieces live on Instagram from his London gallery and intends to incinerate thousands more to finalize the conversion of selected artworks, ensuring their exclusive existence as NFTs. The collective value of the artworks designated for destruction has been estimated at nearly £10 million.
- Charles Saatchi
- John LeKay
- References
References
Blanché, Ulrich (2018). Damien Hirst. Gallery Art in a Material World. Baden-Baden, Germany: Tectum Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8288-4030-0.
- Blanché, Ulrich (2018). Damien Hirst. Gallery Art in a Material World. Baden-Baden, DEU: Tectum Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8288-4030-0.Pogrebin, Robin (21 February 2017). "Damien Hirst Alienated Collectors. Will His New Work Win Them Back?". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 February 2017.Blanché, Ulrich (2014). Konsumkunst: Kultur und Kommerz bei Banksy und Damien Hirst (in German). Bielefeld, Germany: transcript Verlag. ISBN 978-3839421390. Retrieved 22 February 2017.Thompson, Don (2012). The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0230341937. Retrieved 22 February 2017.Benhamou-Huet, Judith (2012). Les artistes ont toujours aimé l'argent: De Dürer à Damien Hirst (in French). Paris, France: Grasset. ISBN 978-2246800002. Retrieved 22 February 2017.Tomkins, Calvin (2010). Lives of the Artists: Portraits of Ten Artists Whose Work and Lifestyles Embody the Future of Contemporary Art. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 978-1429946414. Retrieved 22 February 2017.Grosenick, Uta; Riemschneider, Burkhard, eds. (2005). Art Now (25th anniversary edition). Cologne: Taschen. pp. 132–135. ISBN 9783822840931. OCLC 191239335.
- Official Damien Hirst Website Archived 20 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Damien Hirst at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, September 2011