On Dec 10, 2011, at 11:55 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> And I suppose an argument for e-mail lists is you can learn someone by the
> name of Damien Hirst exists. I'm not quite clear what I'm supposed to do
> with that bit of knowledge however.
Rue the decline of culture, of course!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst>
Damien Steven Hirst[1] (born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent[2] member of the group known as the Young British Artists (or YBAs), who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s.[3] He is internationally renowned,[4] and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List.[5][6] 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.[7]
Death is a central theme in Hirst's works.[8][9] He became famous for a series of artworks in which dead animals (including a shark, a sheep and a cow) are preserved—sometimes having been dissected—in formaldehyde. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark immersed informaldehyde in a vitrine (clear display case) became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,[10] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.[11] He has also made "spin paintings," created on a spinning circular surface, and "spot paintings", which are rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants.
In September 2008, he took an unprecedented move for a living artist[12] by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's by auction and by-passing his long-standing galleries.[13] The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction[14] as well as Hirst's own record with £10.3 million for The Golden Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns and hooves, preserved in formaldehyde.[13]
In several instances since 1999, sources for certain of Hirst's works have been challenged and contested as plagiarised, both in written articles by journalists and artists, and, in one instance, through legal proceedings which led to an out-of-court settlement.[15]
Hirst has made certain controversial statements to the media including, following the 11 September attacks, Hirst congratulated the attackers, stating, "You've got to hand it to them on some level." On 18 September 2002, he "apologised unreservedly" for the remarks.[16]
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