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
Whereas if you suddenly go, OK, I choose to die now, you take the matter into your own hands.
I think if you've made it, why not name it?
I thought it might be nice to have a little line on the side going, just in case, of doing famous people's pets for them, in formaldehyde.
We have had some animal rights things but they all get the facts wrong so they have to go away looking a bit stupid.
You'd never look at a Rembrandt and say, 'That's just wood and canvas and paint - how much?!' It's all about how many people want it. It works on a pair of jeans as well - they're just material and stitching, and as soon as you walk out of the shop, they're worth nothing.
It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-level art, twisted imagination and a chainsaw.
To me it's like, this is the kind of world I live in and these are all the people who are artists who are doing what I'm doing, but in their own way.
There's a lot of things that people don't like, I think it'd be difficult for anyone to go in and say they didn't like the whole thing, because it's enjoyable, it's like a funfair, I hope.
Anything you can do with your hands and feet. Great.
I've seen things that are 200 years old, in formaldehyde.
She wasn't much to look at, but she was great to dance with.
One thing leads to another with my work.
I always try to make everyone mellow down, make sure everybody's happy. The people I have employed have always kind of stayed with us. A lot of people who come to work for you are artists in their own right. And they want to work for you because they want to pick something up.
You've got to be oblivious to other people, the push and pull of other people's opinions, the way other people measure success. It's then that you realize you are 100 percent who you are and you have to use that who-you-are 100 percent in order to create great things.