Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and art collector. He is 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.
Hirst in 2021
For the Love of God by Damien Hirst (2007)
Hirst in the 2010 documentary: The Future of Art
A Dead Shark Isn't Art, Stuckism International Gallery 2003
The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths, in the late 1980s, whereas some from the group had trained at Royal College of Art.
Mat Collishaw's Bullet Hole, which was on display in the Freeze exhibition
Goldsmiths College, Millard Building, in Camberwell, where many of the YBAs met on the BA Fine Art, in the late 1980s
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst (1991). An iconic work of the YBA art scene.