Damien Hirst rose to prominence in the late 1980's, and is one of the most notorious artists of his generation. Hirst is the poster boy for the Young British Artists; a collection of creatives that drew stylistically from Minimalism and Conceptualism, and often focused on the darker aspects of contemporary life.

Over the course of his career Hirst has pushed the limits of fine art and good taste with sculptures that comprise dead animals submerged in formaldehyde; innumerable spot paintings that appear mass-produced and can sell for millions of dollars; and the exuberantly tacky "For the Love of God," a human skull studded with 8,601 diamonds.

Through his installations, sculptures, drawings, and paintings, Hirst explores themes including religion, mortality, and desire. Since 1988, when the artist developed and curated "Freeze," a groundbreaking exhibition of his work and that of his Goldsmiths College peers, he has been the subject of major shows a Tate Modern in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In 2008, Hirst controversially staged "Beautiful Inside my Head Forever," an auction in which he sold his work directly to the public and raked in around $200 million for himself. His individual works are collected widely and have sold for more than $10 million at auction.