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
I sometimes feel that I have nothing to say and I want to communicate this.
I think as an artist you have to reinvent yourself every day.
I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer.
Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.
I can't understand why most people believe in medicine and don't believe in art, without questioning either.
I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great.
I think money is important for everyone, because the lack of it is so painful.
I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'
I've had laser eye surgery and I don't wear glasses any more, so people just go, 'You're not Damien Hirst.' I don't get recognized on the street.
I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.
People always say that my work is sensational or shocking but there are truly shocking things you could do, and my sculptures don't go anywhere near that.
I've been asked to do a retrospective since I was about 28 and I always thought that was a bit odd. It's great to look forward as an artist because in the future the possibilities are infinite; you look back and it's all fixed so it's a scary thing.
You need a big ego to be an artist.
Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.