«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

Hirst recognised the emergence of a new kind of wealthy art buyer that the contemporary art world of other artists, dealers, curators and gallery owners had been slow to serve. As well as artistic interest, they bought for fun, or status, or as an investment. One prominent customer was Steve Cohen, hedge fund manager and billionaire, who bought Hirst’s shark sculpture, giving him the publicity he was looking for.What else: Hirst felt the established art world had an ever narrower definition of works of art. He identified a new “what” – in this case, images, symbols and signs that buyers could acknowledge as unique, whether or not they were attracted to them. He proved that there was a multimillion-dollar market for art work incorporating elements such as rotting meat and all manner of other “unique” materials that stretched boundaries.
How else: Hirst understood that in the value chain of the art market (idea creation, production, exhibition, gallery, art dealer, museum), the role of the curator as the one who selects and often interprets works of art for exhibitions was increasingly important. In a market that lacks objective criteria and therefore transparency, Hirst appreciated the new importance of the curator and was the main organiser and artist-curator of a student exhibition, Freeze, which became instrumental in creating a new generation of artists that became known as Young British Artists.

-Financial Times