Damien Hirst One of the most valuable living artists and the most prominent figure in the Young British Artists group. Date of Birth: 07.06.1965 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst, one of the most expensive living artists and the prominent figure of the Young British Artists group, was born in Bristol and raised in Leeds. His father, a mechanic and car salesman, left the family when Damien was 12. His mother, Mary, a Catholic who worked in a counseling bureau, quickly lost control over Damien, who was arrested twice for shoplifting.

Damien Hirst attended art college in Leeds and studied art at a university in London. He admitted to having serious drug and alcohol problems for ten years, starting in the early 1990s. During this period, he gained notoriety for his unrestrained behavior and antics.

Hirst is married to Californian Maya Norman and has two sons, Connor (born 1995) and Cassius (born 2000). Since Connor's birth, Hirst has spent most of his time in his secluded farmhouse in northern England. He has dominated the British art scene since the 1990s, with death being a central theme in his works. His most famous series is Natural History, which features dead animals, such as a shark, sheep, or cow, preserved in formaldehyde. One of his iconic works is "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," which is a tiger shark in a tank of formaldehyde. The sale of this piece in 2004 made him the second most expensive living artist (after Jasper Johns).

In March 2007, Hirst's exhibition titled Superstition was sold for over 25 million pounds. Throughout the 1990s, his career was closely associated with collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing disagreements led to a split in 2003.

Damien Hirst first gained recognition in 1988 as the young impresario of an exhibition called "Freeze," which took place in an empty building near the London port, next to the Thames. Alongside his fellow students from Goldsmiths College, an innovative educational institution, Hirst announced a new direction for the development of Western European art, marking the end of the "revival of painting in the 80s" and a resurgence of interest in everyday banalities, sexual innuendos, harsh realities of life, and death. His notable inclusion of irony and street humor attracted attention from art dealers and the art community, including Richard Patterson, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Ian Davenport, and Hirst himself.

In 1991, Hirst's first solo exhibition, "In and Out of Love," took place at the Woodstock Street Gallery in London. He also had a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris. During this time, Hirst met art dealer Jay Jopling, who continues to represent him to this day. In 1992, the first exhibition of the Young British Artists was held at the Saatchi Gallery in North London. Hirst's work, "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," featured a shark swimming in formaldehyde and cost Saatchi 50,000 pounds. The shark was caught by a fisherman in Australia and had a value of 6,000 pounds. As a result, Hirst was nominated for the Turner Prize, which was awarded to Grenville Davey.

In 1993, Hirst made a notable appearance at the Venice Biennale with his work "Mother and Child Divided." In 1994, Hirst curated the show "Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away" at the Serpentine Gallery in London, where he presented "Away from the Flock," a sheep preserved in formaldehyde. In 1995, Hirst received the Turner Prize. In 1998, he published his autobiographical book, "I Want To Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now." In 1999, he turned down an invitation to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale. In September 2000, his exhibition "Damien Hirst: Models, Methods, Approaches, Assumptions, Results and Findings" took place in New York, attracting 100,000 visitors over twelve weeks, with all the works sold. In December 2004, "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" was sold by Saatchi to American collector Steve Cohen for 12 million dollars. The artwork was donated by the collector to MoMA in New York. In 2007, Damien Hirst set another price record by creating one of the most expensive contemporary sculptures - a diamond-encrusted platinum skull titled "For the Love of God," valued at around $100 million.