Damien Steven Hirst[1] (born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and the most prominent[2] member of the group known as "Young British Artists" (or YBAs), who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s.[3] He is internationally renowned,[4] and is reputed to be the richest living artist to date.[5] 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.
Death is a central theme in Hirst's works. He became famous for a series 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 in formaldehyde in a vitrine became the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,[6] and the symbol of Britart worldwide.[7] He has also made "spin paintings," created on a spinning circular surface, and "spot paintings", which are rows of randomly-colored circles.
In September 2008, he took an unprecedented move for a living artist[8] by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's by auction and by-passing his long-standing galleries.[9] The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction[10] 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.[9]
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