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Article: Damien Hirst's next surprise. (shock artist)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- October 29, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A SNAPSHOT taken in a morgue when Damien Hirst was 16 shows him grinning broadly and clutching the head of a corpse. Pity his mother and his father, a car salesman in Leeds, when their pride and joy brought home this ghastly photograph. They were not to know that years later--Mr Hirst is now 29--he was to become the most talked-about artist in Britain.
In a way nothing much has changed. It is just that he has become more skilful at disturbing people and at disturbing more of them. At last year's Venice Biennale Mr Hirst's exhibit, "Mother and Child Divided", showed a dead cow and calf, each bisected and displayed with the innards exposed in glass cases filled ...