Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest living artist, with his wealth estimated at US$384 million in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List. 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.
Paintings by Damien Hirst
For the Love of God (2007)
For the Love of God is a sculpture by artist Damien Hirst produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead that is known as the Skull Star Diamond. The skull's teeth are real human teeth, then purchased by Hirst in London. The artwork is a memento mori, or reminder of the mortality of the viewer.
In 2007, art historian Rudi Fuchs described the work as "out of this world, celestial almost. It proclaims victory over decay. At the same time it represents death as something infinitely more relentless. Compared to the tearful sadness of a vanitas scene, the diamond skull is glory itself." According to BBC, the production cost of “For the Love of God” reached around £14 million, making it one of the most expensive artworks ever created. The work was placed on its inaugural display at the White Cube gallery in London in an exhibition Beyond Belief, with an asking price of £50 million. This would have been the highest price ever paid for a single work by a living artist. In January 2022, Hirst stated that he still co-owned the sculpture, and that it was in storage in London.
Mickey (Damien Hirst) (2012)
Hirst was invited by Disney to create an artwork inspired by Mickey Mouse and this was his response. The work was auctioned at Christie's, London, on 13 February 2014 in aid of Kids Company, a charity Hirst has long supported, fetching £902,500.
The auction lot notes quote Hirst as commenting: The thing about Mickey is that even though he’s gone through so many shifts in form and association, he’s timeless. In a way he means the same in the 21st century as he did decades ago. I watched the cartoons as a kid, and my kids watch them too. He’s relevant because he’s remained so culturally ingrained and he still just looks so great. The way children are entertained today has obviously changed dramatically, but kids are still kids, and love the same things.It’s using simple means to capture the very essence of his form solely through the power of colour. I love that the imagery is so powerful that it only takes twelve different coloured dots to create something so instantly recognisable.
Verity (statue) (2012)
Verity is a 2012 stainless steel and bronze statue created by Damien Hirst. The 20.25-metre (66.4 ft) tall sculpture stands on the pier at the entrance to the harbour in Ilfracombe, Devon, looking out over the Bristol Channel towards South Wales. It has been loaned to the town for 20 years. The name of the piece refers to "truth" and Hirst describes his work as a "modern allegory of truth and justice".
The statue depicts a pregnant woman holding aloft a sword while carrying the scales of justice and standing on a pile of law books. Half of the sculpture shows the internal anatomy of the pregnant woman, with the foetus clearly visible. The stance has been described as a reference to Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas, a c. 1880 work that previously inspired Hirst when he created Virgin Mother, another massive sculpture of a pregnant woman with her foetus exposed.
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is an artwork created in 1991 by Damien Hirst, an English artist and a leading member of the "Young British Artists" (or YBA, also known as "Britart"). It consists of a preserved tiger shark submerged in formalin in a glass-panel display case.
It was originally commissioned in 1991 by Charles Saatchi, who sold it in 2004 to Steven A. Cohen for an undisclosed amount, widely reported to have been at least $8 million. However, the title of Don Thompson's book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art, suggests a higher figure.
The Anatomy of an Angel (2008)
Damien Hirst: Anatomy of an Angel
Hydra and Kali (2016)
Greenwich, The Tide, Hydra and Kali sculpture by Damien Hirst
Demon with Bowl (2014)
Sculpture by Damien Hirst
Beautiful Portrait, The Queen (2014)
Beautiful Portrait, The Queen is a 2014 painting by Damien Hirst. The tondo is one of few portraits by Hirst, and depicts Queen Elizabeth II. It was made for the Government Art Collection, the official art collection of the British government.
The spin painting was made using household gloss paint, on a circular canvas with a diameter of 152.4 cm (60.0 in). It has radial bands of pink and light blue on a white ground, overpainted with a portrait of the Queen in darker red and blue, reproducing a photograph. She is depicted in a three quarter view, slightly smiling, wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, familiar from the Arnold Machin series of British coins issued until 1984. The modernist, almost Pop Art, image is also reminiscent of Jamie Reid's cover of the Sex Pistols second single "God Save the Queen", released in 1977.