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Damien Hirst

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Artist

The Resume

    (June 7, 1965- )
    Born in Bristol, England, United Kingdom
    Painter and conceptual artist
    Best-known work is 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' (1991), consisting of a 14-foot tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde in a clear display case
    Considered the most prominent member of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement of the 1990s
    Won the Turner Prize (1995)

Why he might be annoying:

    As a teen, he was twice arrested for shoplifting.
    Early in his career he said, 'I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.'
    He seems obsessed with death, possibly reflecting an early job at a mortuary.
    A lot of his work featured dead animals, often dissected, in formaldehyde.
    Several of his works were banned from display in New York City by public health officials.
    One of his works -- consisting of overflowing ashtrays, half-full coffee cups and empty beer bottles left from a gallery launch party -- was thrown out by a janitor.
    He said that in the 90s, 'I started taking cocaine and drink... I turned into a babbling fucking wreck.'
    He has a factory setup in which many of his works are created by assistants based on his ideas.
    His own painting was described by the Times of London as 'shockingly bad.'
    In the art journal 'The Jackdaw,' artist Charles Thomson claimed 15 of Hirst's works were plagiarized from other artists.
    On the first anniversary of 9/11 he said, 'You've got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America. So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    His mom heated one of his Sex Pistols records on the stove and turned it into a bowl.
    He was good friends with Joe Strummer and founded a charity, Strummerville, to help young musicians.
    He supports the indigenous people's rights organization Survival International.
    He apologized for his remarks about 9/11.
    He set a record for a single-artist auction when his show 'Beautiful Inside My Head Forever' sold at Sotheby's for $198 million (2008).
    His representation of the Union Flag was the arena centerpiece during the Olympic closing ceremonies (2012).
    He had a net worth of over $380 million (2010), making him the richest living artist.
    His response to people saying that anyone could have, for example, stuck a shark in a tank is, 'But you didn't, did you?'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 219 Votes: 65.75% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 411 Votes: 43.31% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 29 Votes: 62.07% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 19 Votes: 68.42% Annoying