Damien Hirst

Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and the most prominent figure of the Young British Artists generation that emerged from Goldsmiths in the late 1980s. His preserved animals, spot paintings, and diamond-encrusted skull made him one of the wealthiest living artists.

He was born on June 7, 1965, in Bristol, the son of Mary Brennan, an amateur artist who later worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau. He never knew his biological father; his stepfather, William Hirst, a motor mechanic, left the family when Damien was twelve. He was raised in Leeds, attended Allerton Grange School, and worked on London building sites before being admitted to Goldsmiths College in 1986.

While still a student he organized the warehouse exhibition Freeze in 1988, which is generally taken as the founding moment of the YBA movement. The 1991 work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde, was bought by Charles Saatchi and brought him international attention. He won the Turner Prize in 1995.

The diamond-encrusted skull For the Love of God appeared in 2007, and his 2008 Sotheby's sale Beautiful Inside My Head Forever bypassed his dealers and grossed roughly £111 million. He has since opened the Newport Street Gallery in London and continues to produce spot paintings, butterfly works, and the long-running Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable.

The masculine name Damien is the French form of the Greek Damianos, derived from damao, meaning "to tame" or "to subdue." He has subdued the contemporary art market more thoroughly than most of his peers.