A Quote by Jerry Saltz

Damien Hirst is the Elvis of the English art world, its ayatollah, deliverer, and big-thinking entrepreneurial potty-mouthed prophet and front man. Hirst synthesizes punk, Pop Art, Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, and Catholicism.

Jerry Saltz

Quote Topics

Art Art World Bacon Big Catholicism Elvis English Entrepreneurial Francis Front Jeff Man Pop Pop Art Potty Prophet Punk Thinking World

Quote Author

Jerry Saltz
American - Critic
Born: February 19, 1951

When art is defined by Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, you've got a society that's impoverished.

Robert Adams

I'm a massive fan of Brit Art in general and Damien Hirst in particular. I think he's an absolute genius and should be celebrated in every way.

David Morrissey

Take Damien Hirst out of contemporary art history, and there's an incredible void. Great artists, like great people, have second acts.

Larry Gagosian

People think they are not allowed to laugh at art, but they are. Damien Hirst laughs at himself. I know Jake and Dinos Chapman and they laugh all the time at what they do and at other artists.

Vic Reeves

I had thrown my body in for art... I had thrown myself into this game for art. You know, I was not a very good artist. But this was, like, one thing I could do. (On being photographed nude playing chess with Marcel Duchamp at Duchamp's 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art.)

Eve Babitz

I love and collect contemporary art and go to all the art fairs. I love Damien Hirst and Matthew Barney. I grew up in Italy and had a humanistic education in philosophy and literature - things I love and appreciate. People are richer and more complex than just their day-to-day professional pursuits might suggest.

Nouriel Roubini

You cannot own a symphony or a novel in the way you can own a Damien Hirst. As a result there are far fewer fake symphonies or fake novels than there are fake works of visual art.

Roger Scruton

I'd like to work with Damien Hirst.

Steve Madden

Damien Hirst's Mother and Child Divided (1993) is a work which can at first glance be read as nothing more than two brutally severed carcasses. "A freak show" was how the art critic of the Sunday Telegraph responded to its presentation in the Turner Prize in 1995. For me, the undoubted shock, even disgust provoked by the work is part of its appeal. Art should be transgressive. Life is not all sweet.

Nicholas Serota

I'm a long way from being a Damien Hirst.

Ben Eine

My friends are all megalomaniacs - from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson - all of them.

David Bailey

I think that Damien Hirst putting a shark in a bath of formaldehyde is nothing.

William Klein

Myself and David, we both love art. We have a lot of respect for Damien Hirst and Julian Schnabel, and we've met them both, and they're very interesting characters. I also have a lot of respect for the working women out there. As you know, it's not easy when you're looking after children and you have a career as well.