Damien Hirst is one of the most controversial figures in contemporary British art. His work turns death, medicine, animals, diamonds, repetition and display into a theatre of belief. He does not hide the link between art and money. He makes it part of the work.
Hirst emerged with the Young British Artists in the late 1980s and 1990s. His vitrines, spot paintings, formaldehyde works and luxury objects changed how people saw contemporary art. They also exposed how shock, publicity and market value can shape meaning.
This tag collects articles and critical readings on Damien Hirst, the Young British Artists and the art market. It also follows death, spectacle, serial production, capitalism, value, belief and the thin line between provocation and branding.
Entrance to Frieze House Seoul, designed by Seoul-based architectural studio Samuso Hyoja, featuring a site-specific installation by Japanese architecture studio SANAA Damien Hirst, Do Ho Suh, Nam June Paik, James Turrell and more than 130 galleries converge at Frieze Seoul 2026. Beyond the headline names, the real story is the changing balance of power between Seoul and the global art world.
Read More
Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Brooklyn Museum, 1999–2000. Photo Brooklyn Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Young British Artists: shock was only the surface The Young British Artists, usually shortened to YBAs, were not a movement
Read More
Damien Hirst - The Kaleidoscopes: Harlequin When Scandal Becomes a Medium From sharks in formaldehyde and butterfly rooms to toy copyright lawsuits and diamond skulls, this
Read More
Jeff Koons — Apollo Kithara Exploring the Maximalist Art Movement of the 1990s In the 1990s, the art world saw a dynamic shift toward more
Read More
Damien Hirst - For the Love of God A $100 Million Memento Mori Imagine standing face-to-face with a skull that glitters with thousands of diamonds, each refracting light
Read More
Damien Hirst - Black Sheep with Golden Horns The Power of Art Interventions: How Artists Disrupt Spaces and Engage the Public Art interventions are unexpected creative actions that
Read More
Damien Hirst - I Am Become Death (2012) Damien Hirst: The Shark, the Skull, and the Price of Looking at Death Damien Hirst did not simply make art
Read More
Neo-Pop art Neo-Pop Art: From Pop’s Legacy to the Digital Age of Irony, Consumerism, and Cultural Critique Neo-Pop is an art movement
Read More
Paula Rego - Nanny, Small Bear and Bogeyman From Jenny Holzer to Damien Hirst, Neo-Conceptual Art turned the legacy of 1960s Conceptualism into an 1980s engine of media
Read More