Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst is a British artist who became the most famous and provocative of the Young British Artists in the 1990s. Born in Bristol in 1965, he shocked and fascinated the public with works like a shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde and a human skull covered in thousands of diamonds. Death, money, and science run through much of his work.

He has produced spot paintings, spin paintings, and vast displays of pills and butterflies, often made with teams of assistants, which has fueled debate about authorship and value. A sharp businessman as well as an artist, he once sold a huge show of new work directly at auction, bypassing galleries. Hirst remains one of the most talked about and divisive figures in contemporary art.