Damien Hirst: Gone but not forgotten

A 10,000 year old woolly mammoth skeleton, gilded in 24-carat gold leaf and encased in a giant gold framed tank has sold for 11 million euro. Damien Hirst's Gone but Not Forgotten was auctioned at a star-studded fundrasier for AIDS and purchased by Leonard Blavatnik, the Ukranian owner of Warner Music and Britain's fourth richest person. The mammoth skeleton is from Hirst's natural history collection which he began in 1991.
Image: Damien Hirst with Gone But Not forgotten

Damien Hirst takes Tate Modern into second place on the list of Britain's most visited attractions

For the sixth consecutive year, the British Museum was the most visited attraction in the UK with 5.6 million visitors. The Tate Modern took second place with 5.3 million visitors, up by 9% on the previous year with a large share of the increase down to Damien Hirst. His exhibition became the best-attended solo show and second-most visited exhibition in the Tate Modern's history.

Damien Hirst enters the fast-food brand game

Damien Hirst, the artist who became a brand, has entered the fast-food brand game, lending an artwork to Burger King as it attempts to counter rival McDonalds marketing messages as part of its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The title of the work is Beautiful Psychedelic Gherkin Exploding Tomato Sauce All Over Your Face Flame Grilled Painting, 2003. Burger King says the last part of the title is apt, given the fact that it flame grills its beef burgers. And Leicester Square franchisee, Django Fung, says: "Art should be accessible to everyone, especially in such a busy summer and putting this painting in our new-look Burger King restaurant in such a high-profile location does just that."
Image: Damien Hirst's Beautiful Psychedelic Gherkin Exploding Tomato Sauce All Over Your Face, Flame Grilled Painting, 2003

Tate gift shop offers Damien Hirst merchandise at eye-watering prices

The final room in the Damien Hirst show at the Tate is a gift shop where visitors can find a range of items at eye-watering prices including a £36,800 skull, a set of china plates for £10,500, a deck chair for £310, an umbrella for £195, butterfly-print wallpaper at £700 a roll and for those on a budget, a set of coloured circular spot magnets at £14.95.
Image: Damien Hirst cup and saucer at £12.50 each or £60 for a set of 6

Con Art thinking out of favour at the Tate?

If you are wondering why the Tate banned Con Art author Julian Spalding from the Hirst exhibition, you may find the answer in his opinion piece for the Independent on conceptual art (he says it's art that cons people) and Damien Hirst as a sub-prime artist. Read more...

Hirst critic denied entry to the Tate show

The Independent reports days after it published his condemnation of Hirst as a "con artist" whose art is "worthless" financially and artistically, Julian Spalding (author of the book Con Art - Why You Ought To Sell Your Damien Hirsts While You Can) was denied entry to the Tate's Hirst exhibition. Spalding had turned up at the request of the BBC and two German TV stations only to be informed that the Tate would not allow the interviews. "The Tate's job is to encourage debate about art," he said. The fact that I'm not allowed to talk about the work in front of it is extraordinary."
Image: Damien Hirst at the opening of his Tate show

A mid-career moment for Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst has gone from YBA to a global brand over the past 25 years - and become the richest living artist on the planet. He talks to the Guardian about money, mortality and his first retrospective in Britain. Read more...

Damien Hirst unveils plans to build 500 eco homes

Damien Hirst has announced his latest move: he wants to build 500 eco houses just outside the town of Ilfracombe, Devon where he already has a restaurant, an art studio and several properties. Like his spot paintings, the technical specs for his eco homes will be carried out by others, including architect Mike Rundell, who says "he wants these houses to be the kind of homes he would want to live in." The properties will feature hidden wind turbines in the roofs, photovoltaic solar panels and state-of-the-art insulation and Hirst hopes the development will create a national blueprint for environmental housing.
Image: Time Magazine interviewing Damien Hirst

Too big to fail? Damien Hirst's mega-exhibition of spot paintings at 11 Gagosian galleries

Damien Hirst certainly knows how to play the art market with moves like his $78 million diamond-encrusted skull, which is owned by a consortium of investors including the artist himself (and soon to be shown at the Tate Modern), or bypassing his galleries to go direct to Sotheby's where the auction smashed top estimates to reach a record total of $125m.

His latest art-market venture is to supply all of Larry Gagosian's galleries world wide with exhibitions of his spot paintings. It's the kind of move that once prompted critic Jerry Saltz to call Hirst "a symptom of the hype, the hubris and the money that have swamped the scene lately." When asked whether he worried about the art market's capacity to absorb another round of spot paintings, Hirst was quick to come up with several answers. Read more...

Image: Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst's For the Love of God: a sign of the times?

A little over three years ago Damien Hirst abandoned the traditional method of selling art going straight to Sotheby's instead where the auction smashed top estimates to reach a record total of USD125m. Ironically it was also the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, setting in train a credit crunch and global recession which in turn sent a booming international art market into freefall.

As the sovereign debt crisis plays out in Europe and the world stares down the barrel of another global recession, Hirst is in the news again. His $78 million diamond-encrusted platinum skull, For the Love of God, is back in London courtesy of the Tate. The piece, which has yet to enter a major public collection and is owned by a consortium of investors including the artist himself, will be displayed in a special viewing room in the Turbine Hall during the first two months of the artist's retrospective at Tate Modern.

Image: Damien Hirst's For the Love of God (2007)