Damien Hirst is thought to be Charles Saatchi's greatest discovery, and a 25 year retrospective of his work will go on display at the Tate Modern, beginning on April 4. Nevertheless, in a recent interview with The Telegraph, Hirst comes off as defensive and even somewhat delusional as he compares himself to Michelangelo, which suggests the public may have a point when it lambasts the cynicism and lack of inspiration in his work.
People don’t like contemporary art but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference. Michelangelo was definitely getting that, everybody was getting it. I’m sure there were people in caves going, ‘I like your cave but I hate that crap you've got on the wall’
Hirst hazily continued:
I love it though when you get cab drivers coming up to you and they say, ‘What you do isn’t art, mate’. It's brilliant that you can have a really strong opinion. I had a passport where I wrote ‘artist’ under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it’s proved!’
Read the full interview here.
Here's a video tour of the exhibit.
