Damien Hirst Bristol, UK, b. 1965
-
Damien Hirst © Photo Nathanael Turner for The New York Times -
“I just wanted to find out where the boundaries were. So far I’ve found there aren’t any. I just wanted to be stopped, and no one will stop me.”
– Damien HirstA leading figure of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement, Damien Hirst has played a central role in shaping the discourse of contemporary art since the early 1990s. His practice examines life, death, belief, science, religion, and consumer culture through works that combine conceptual precision with strong visual impact. Hirst’s art operates at the intersection of attraction and unease, confronting viewers with fundamental questions of existence while challenging conventional expectations of what art can be.
Mortality occupies a defining position within Hirst’s work. The fear of death, which the artist has identified as the central idea of his practice, underpins his sustained engagement with themes of impermanence, preservation, and belief. His works often adopt the visual language of scientific display and institutional authority, transforming methods of classification and preservation into metaphors for humanity’s attempt to control the uncontrollable.
Born in Bristol and raised in Leeds, Hirst moved to London in 1986 to study at Goldsmiths College. In 1988, while still a student, he curated the exhibition Freeze, an event that introduced a new generation of British artists and marked a decisive moment in the formation of the YBA movement. The exhibition established new models of self-organization, visibility, and artistic authorship that would become characteristic of the period.
Public recognition followed in the early 1990s. In 1991, Hirst created The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, featuring a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde. First exhibited in 1992, the work confronted audiences with death as a physical presence rather than an abstract concept. This approach became central to the Natural History series, in which animals preserved in formaldehyde are presented with the detached clarity of scientific specimens.
In 1995, Hirst was awarded the Turner Prize for Mother and Child (Divided) (1993), shown at the Venice Biennale. In 1997, his participation in Sensation at the Royal Academy of Arts further established his position as one of the most controversial and visible artists of his generation.
Painting has remained a significant component of Hirst’s practice. The Spot Paintings, initiated in the late 1980s, consist of multicoloured dots arranged in precise grids. Their apparent order is undermined by the deliberate avoidance of colour repetition, producing a subtle sense of instability beneath the surface.
“The Spot Paintings always look happy, although there’s an unease there too because the colours don’t repeat when you expect them to.”
– Damien HirstButterflies occupy a central symbolic role in Hirst’s work. The exhibition In and Out of Love (1991) incorporated live butterflies emerging and dying within the gallery space, making the life cycle an integral part of the artwork. In the later Kaleidoscope Paintings, thousands of butterfly wings are arranged into symmetrical compositions reminiscent of stained glass and mandalas. These works combine visual beauty with an acute awareness of fragility and impermanence.
Chance and mechanical process are explored in the Spin Paintings, produced by pouring household paint onto a rotating canvas. The method reduces direct artistic control and introduces unpredictability, referencing both action painting and the conceptual legacy of the readymade.
Medicine and pharmacology form another sustained focus within Hirst’s work. The Medicine Cabinets and Instrument Cabinets present pharmaceuticals and surgical tools arranged with clinical precision. These works reflect society’s trust in science and medical authority while acknowledging their limits. As Hirst has observed, such works can be read simultaneously as reflections on power structures, belief systems, consumer culture, and the human body.
In 2007, Hirst presented For the Love of God, a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds. The work became one of the most resonant and expensive artistic gestures of its time, attracting attention far beyond the professional art world. By combining the motif of memento mori with demonstrative luxury and an aesthetics of excess, Hirst called into question the boundaries of artistic value and the relationship between art, the market, and consumer culture within a media-saturated contemporary landscape.
"You have to find universal triggers. Everyone’s afraid of glass, everyone’s frightened of sharks. Everyone loves butterflies."
– Damien Hirst
Over three decades, Hirst has developed a body of work spanning installation, painting, and sculpture, contributing to a reassessment of the role of the artist within contemporary cultural and institutional frameworks.Works by Damien Hirst are held in major public collections worldwide, including:
Tate, London, United Kingdom
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
The Broad, Los Angeles, USA
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, USA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany -
Works
Damien Hirst Bristol, UK, b. 1965
Tetrachloroauric acid, 2008Household gloss and enamel paint on canvas175,3 × 271,8 cmFurther images
In his famous 'Spot Paintings' series, ever attuned to allusions and theoretical discourse, Hirst reimagines the classic artistic genre of the grid, grounding it in scientific thought and the genetic...In his famous 'Spot Paintings' series, ever attuned to allusions and theoretical discourse, Hirst reimagines the classic artistic genre of the grid, grounding it in scientific thought and the genetic structures that underpin life itself.
The uniquely coloured dots are meticulously arranged within a precise grid; the regimented pattern suggests order and structure, yet there is an underlying sense of chaos. As the artist explains, this tension arises from the lack of satisfying colour interplay: "If you look closely at one of these paintings, a strange thing happens: because of the lack of repeated colours, there is no harmony. We are used to picking out chords of the same colour and balancing them with different chords of other colours to create meaning. This can't happen. So in every painting there is a subliminal sense of unease; yet the colours project so much joy it's hard to feel it, but it's there."
Exhibitions
Damien Hirst. Tate Modern, London, UK. Apr 4–Sep 9, 2012
Damien Hirst. Gary Tatintsian Gallery. Mar 31—Jun 1, 2017Publications
Damien Hirst. Tate Modern, London, UK, 2012-
Damien Hirst | Drawings
May 7 – October 12, 2025 | Albertina Modern, ViennaThis is the first museum exhibition of Hirst’s works on paper and includes preparatory drawings and sketches produced from the 1980s onward. ⠀ Presented alongside a selection of related sculptures... -
Damien Hirst | The Light That Shines
March 2 – June 23, 2024 | Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-RéparadeThroughout his prolific career, Hirst has reflected on the relationships between beauty, religion, science, life, and death. The major exhibition will feature sculptures and paintings, including some of Hirst’s most... -
Damien Hirst | To Live Forever (For A While)
March 23 – August 25, 2024 | Museo Jumex, Mexico CityCurated in close collaboration with Damien Hirst and leading curator Ann Gallagher, the exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s work between 1986 and 2019, featuring 57 works including...
Video-
Damien Hirst – For the Love of God | TateShots
© Tate -
Damien Hirst. interview for Yorkshire Sculpture International
© Yorkshire Sculpture International -
Damien Hirst. Relics documentary
© ALRIWAQ DOHA -
Damien Hirst. «Cerisiers en Fleurs» – Le film documentaire
© Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain -
Damien Hirst. Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable
© Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
Artsy
Subscribe