Damien Hirst Original

... hadn’t felt it necessary to make his own work ever before in his career, imagining that he could just sit down at an easel and paint like Francis Bacon. Maybe they missed the point though. In characterizing Hirst as merely a marketing man, able to manipulate the markets, but not make work of any lasting importance, they saw these new Damien Hirst original paintings as an attempt at longevity, an acknowledgement that his earlier work was flimsy and flawed, and an admission that only painting is worthwhile and meaningful. And they took the opportunity to deny him.

They saw him as a supplicant, and denied him. But what if they were wrong? It seems fantastical that a man with enough vision to see the art world as a whole and the ability to bend it to his will, should ever feel the need to go looking for approval from the very people he has been dancing rings around for years. What if he just fancied a bit of painting? Or bringing the romantic ideal of tortured artist back as a subject of discussion? Damien Hirst, popular it may be now to try to knock him, will feature on the first page of the 21^st Century Art handbook...rumours of his relegation to footnote status have been vastly exaggerated.