«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

Hirst is a waning artist. His studio has become a factory of corny Hirst souvenirs. Is he really that big a loss? The art dealer Larry Gagosian has recently been shedding famous names, losing Damien Hirst and Yayoi Kusama. Is all not well in the world's most spectacular chain of galleries? So goes the gossip in some quarters, yet Gagosian is about to open a third gallery in London, making a total of 13 worldwide. So apparently he's not all washed up just yet. Meanwhile, Gagosian in New York is opening a show this week that arguably puts the Damien Hirst departure in context. Jeff Koons is another matter. Rumours that Koons might be leaving Gagosian were far more significant, because Koons is an evergreen at what he does. What he does, of course, is to shock the tasteful and offend cultural hierarchies by mixing high and low, art and money, art and sex, in sculptures and paintings that are at once offensively "slick" and bizarrely brilliant. Where Hirst has run out of ideas, Koons carries on being gleefully provocative. He is the art world's true king of pop.

-Jonathan Jones
 The Guardian