“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE” -ANDY WARHOL

"I think I have helped change that perception, me and Andy Warhol and Picasso and all guys who took the commercial aspects on board. I don't think I would have done it if Warhol hadn't done it. He made it acceptable ... There's a hell of a lot of money in art, but artists don't get it."But he added: "As an artist, your goal has to be something else. The art will outshine the money."Hirst's comments followed a broadside by art critic Robert Hughes, who condemned him for "functioning like a commercial brand" and destroying any true understanding of art by placing importance on the price tag of an artwork.
He described one of Hirst's most famous works, "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" – a shark pickled in formaldehyde – as "the world's most over-rated marine organism", adding "It is a clever piece of marketing, but as a piece of art it is absurd." The shark sold for £8m in 2004.

-The Independant
Sept 9 2008