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Damien Hirst ¿art or speculation?

Born in Bristol and grew up in Leeds. His father, an auto mechanic, left his family when Hirst was 12. His mother, Mary, Catholic, worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau and says he lost control on the performer when he was very young. Hirst was arrested twice for shoplifting. Meanwhile, Damien saw his mother and uncompromising person: she once cut and tidy up your pants punk, and heated in an oven one of their albums of the Sex Pistols to turn it into a bowl of fruit. Damien said: “If she did not like what he was wearing, I quickly picked up the bus stop.” What he did was to encourage his mother’s taste for drawing, his only successful school subject.
His art teacher pleaded that Hirst would allow entry into the sixth grade, where he earned good grades, achieving a level “E” in the subject of art. He attended the University of Leeds, in Art and Design, but the first time I requested was denied admission. He worked for two years in the empowerment of construction sites in London, then studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London (1986-89), but again was refused a first application. As a student, Hirst worked part time at a mortuary, an experience that later influenced his choice of subjects and materials.

Hirst has admitted serious problems provided drugs and alcohol, at least ten years, the period of the 90 and over: “I started using cocaine and drinking … I transformed into a babbling fucking castaway. ” During this time he was recognized for his wild behavior and outrageous acts, including, for example, placed a cigarette on the tip of the penis in front of journalists. It was a regular at the elegant Groucho Club in London’s Soho, which was expelled and banned once for bad behavior.
In 2002, Hirst quit smoking and drinking, but the short term result was that his wife Maia “had to move because I had become unbearable.” Hirst had met Joe Strummer (former lead singer of The Clash) at Glastonbury in 1995, had made great friends and even family celebrated the festival together. Just before Christmas 2002, Strummer died of a fulminating heart attack. This event had a profound effect on Hirst, who declared: “This is the first time I felt mortal.” After this misfortune, he donated much of their money and spent much of his time to Strummerville charitable foundation dedicated to helping young musicians. Likewise, Hirst has lately shown great interest in Christianity.
He is married to Maia Norman Californian who has 3 children: Connor, born in 1995, Cassius, born in 2000, and Cyrus, born in 2007. Since the birth of Connor, has spent most of his time in his famous country house, an inn for 300 years, located in North Devon.

Death is the central theme of his work. It is known for his Natural History series (“Natural History”), in which dead animals (including sharks, sheep or cows) are preserved, sometimes dissected in formalin. One of his most iconic work is The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of a living thing (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living). This is a 14-foot tiger shark immersed in a long glass case with formaldehyde. Due to the decomposition of the tiger shark, was replaced with a new specimen in 2006.
Its sale of 10 million dollars in 2004, made him the second most expensive living artist after Jasper Johns. In June 2007, Hirst was able to beat Jaspers in this section by selling his “Medicine chest” (Medicine Chest, at the exhibition Lullaby Spring), for 9.65 million pounds sterling in the auction house Sotheby’s in London. On August 30, 2007, Hirst overtook his previous sale of Lullaby Spring with his work For the Love of God (For the Love of God), a real human skull, entirely encrusted in diamonds, in total 8601, which reached fifty million pounds (74 million euros) paid by an unknown investment group (later it was learned that Hirst himself, his manager and one of its galleries belonging to the consortium) (El Pais, 01.05.2008). Another big sale was won by The Golden Calf (The golden calf), for which he won at Sotheby’s 10.34 million pounds (14 million euros). He was a fortune estimated in excess of one billion dollars, being richer than other British tycoons known as Mick Jagger and Elton John.
It is also known for his paintings whirling (“spin paintings”), made on a spinning circular surface, and paint spots (“spot painting”), which consist of rows of colored circles at random, these works have been imitated graphics.
During the nineties was associated with the collector Charles Saatchi, but the friction increased to the point of ending the relationship in 2003.
Death being the central theme in his work, it has always been surrounded by much controversy, more or less deliberate, and therefore a large media coverage. For example, New York authorities denied him permission at the time to expose your fucking dead couple twice, two bodies of a bull and a cow floating in formaldehyde. Many have said that is crazy about the work he does, but his works are impressive.

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