Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirstis an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists, who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List. During the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth7 June 1965
The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it.
Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That's as close as you can get to immortality...
You can always tell a great painting, because when you get close there are all these nervous marks.
But then architects don't build their own houses.
But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - or at least you think you are. The possibilities are limitless, you're inventing the future. Then you get older and suddenly you have a history. It's fixed. You can't change anything. I find that a bit disturbing, to be honest.
You've got to be able to copy things faithfully before you can deviate.
I mean, people listen to music, and they like that, but I think in England, a lot of people don't like contemporary art.
Commercials are so contemporary and up to date that when you're involved in that visual world, you can't really go backwards.
I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a collage.
It's ridiculous what I do. I can't believe in it - but I have to.
I did a load of medicine cabinets a long time ago and I named them after Sex Pistols songs. I suppose I must be getting old if I'm naming work after Philip Larkin poems.
I liked The Beatles a lot when I was growing up.
I don't think I'd want my pet in formaldehyde, but I guess in America they would.
I don't really have a career plan.