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Damien Hirst Tate Modern retrospective opens
Mark Brown from the Guardian UK looks back on the opening of Damien Hirst’s first retrospective.

The presiding genius of contemporary British art, justifiably making a fortune by thrilling audiences with his memorable reflections on life and death. The blockbuster retrospective brings together 70 works and covers everything Hirst is particularly known for – from pickling sharks and killing flies to painting spots and encrusting
a skull with diamonds and selling it for a claimed price of £50m. They are also the things that get his critics foaming. As to whether or not he cares about the condemnation of art critics, he exclaimed: “I don’t think you can. I only care what people say when it’s true. I’m sure there were people around when they were doing it in the caves, going ‘I like your cave, but I hate that crap you’ve got on the walls’.” Many have complained that Hirst is only in it for the money. To this allegation, the artist replied “Money is important and money can sometimes obscure the art but ultimately the art has got to be more important than the money or I wouldn’t do it.”

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