What the world is reading about8230;

Critic Waldemar Januszczak suggests you consider Hirst8217;s latest shark piece, The Kingdom. 8220;The hideously pointy mouth is wide open, as if it is going to eat you, and its evil little piggy eyes search you out with that terrifying one-directional stare.8221; 8220;Imagine that it represents the entire art world and the manner in which it pursues its business. See how predatory it is, how cunning, how fixated on its prey, how implacable and ruthless. Stand in front of this evil killing machine8230; wiggle your behind at it, stick your tongue out and blow raspberries at it. That, more or less, is what Damien Hirst is doing to the art world by putting 223 new works up for sale at Sotheby8217;s.8221;

Bad Boy Makes Good/Time, Europe

In this cover story, Richard Lacayo recounts how the richest British artist grew up in an impoverished background without ever seeing his biological father. When you ask Hirst about his early influences, it8217;s not an artist he brings up first. It8217;s Charles Saatchi, a former ad tycoon and collector who established a gallery in 1985 to show his own collection. 8220;Britain was always small. Then Saatchi came and put things on a big f8212;ing American scale. So I just started making work like that. It didn8217;t matter that I didn8217;t know where to put it,8217;8217; says Hirst. The royal family of Qatar first briefly made Hirst, 43 the most expensive living artist at auction last year by paying 19.2 million for Lullaby Spring, one of his medicine-cabinet pieces.

Australian critic says Damien Hirst work is overrated/ The Courier-Mail, Australia

Robert Hughes, Australian art critic and a compulsive Hirstologist is unimpressed. Pickling sharks and foals in formaldehyde, he feels is 8220;tacky8221;, 8220;absurd8221; and 8220;over-rated8221;. Hughes branded the famous artist8217;s works 8211; which includes a diamond encrusted human skull that sold for 108.4 million8212;as such in a new TV documentary. Quoting from Observer newspaper, this article says Hughes documentary attacks Hirst for 8220;functioning like a commercial brand8221; and accuses the artist of making the price tag of an artwork more important than its meaning.

A man who is tired of Damien Hirst/The Independent

British media personality Janet Street-Porters rubbishes Hughes,offering a eulogy to countryman Hirst. Porter acknowledges that her views may stem from a package8212;six large watercolours and a pencil drawing8212;all signed and dedicated to her by Hirst, but says that, 8220;Hirst, like Warhol and Bacon, is a perfect reflection of our times.8221;

Hirst8217;s auction does not demean the art world/Guardian

Art critic Jonathan Jones. in a review of Hirst8217;s auction says, 8220;Hirst is more interesting than any other artist of his generation. His flaws are part of his bizarre humanity, as an artist. Will that all vanish if this sale is a failure? Er, no. Do artists have the right to sell their own work? Er, yes. So it seems this is not the end of the art world, after all8221;.