Interview

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There is butterfly wallpaper in the downstairs lavatory of the Georgian building that houses Damien Hirst's London office. On the wall hangs a framed flyposter for the newspaper The Evening Standard that reads: HIRST'S £50M DIAMOND SKULL. Artwork in Hirst's own office, up a flight of stairs, includes a photograph of Francis Bacon, a green Electric Chair by Andy Warhol, and a sculpture of Christ, likewise in an electric chair, by the fast-rising British artist Paul Fryer. The ensemble suggests two of the artist's salient characteristics-his bumptiousness and his generosity of spirit-since, aside from Jeff Koons, I am aware of few other artists who display the work of their contemporaries and their juniors. But Hirst showed this godfather-ish streak early on when he put together "Freeze," the July 1988 exhibition in a warehouse in London's Docklands that showcased his fellow students at Goldsmiths College and played a significant part in creating the British art world as it is today.

The ensemble also shows that Hirst is utterly consistent in his obsessions. An early photograph that has become part of his oeuvre shows him grinning wickedly, cheek-to-cheek with the severed head of a fellow who much resembles the 1st-century Roman emperor Galba; it is perhaps the germ of the diamond skull [For the Love of God ]. This piece debuted at a show at Jay Jopling's White Cube in June 2007. I took in the rest of the exhibition, then climbed the stairs to where the skull glimmered in a black velvet room. Hirst was standing alone at the door. "What a show, man," I said. "What a showman," he riposted.

Damien Hirst has a tremendous ego, but it doesn't present itself as a warm bath of self-regard; rather it seems oddly objective, work-oriented, and drenched in irony. Many, though, thought the artist had pushed the boat out a bit too far when he announced that he was putting up two years of work, some 223 pieces, at Sotheby's, London, cutting out both White Cube and Gagosian Gallery, and indeed paring the auction house's commission to next to nothing. Flooding the market with the work of a single artist seemed an affront both to ordinary practice and common sense, especially as the event approached, and the financial sky became thunderous. Actually, the sale went through the roof and may well prove to be the high point of this particular art-world cycle. So, what next?

ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST: You said even if the auction failed it would open the door.

DAMIEN HIRST: Yeah.

AHG: What do you see happening? What kind of power do you see artists having, specifically?

DH: Well, I mean, the art world's changing, isn't it? It's another road where there wasn't one before. It's a great advantage to be able to play people off against each other, isn't it? You go to Christie's and get a quote on something. And then you go to Phillips' and you tell them what Christie's has given you. I like auctions for artists. It wasn't really like this before, but it is now. Which is great.

AHG: So it's like Madonna and U2 sacking their labels and going independent.

DH: Yes. It's better than doing a fragrance, I guess.

AHG: Perhaps you should do a fragrance.

DH: Really? Formaldehyde! Crank! Who knows?

AHG: The argument against what you're doing is that artists need dealers because dealers put on shows. Artists, especially young artists, get reviewed and get into the information loop. You have to be at a particular level to do what you have done.

DH: I thought it was quite an advantage for young people just starting off to get a bit of interest. The auction houses are interested in being cutting-edge as well as being mainstream. I was thinking of someone like Tim [Noble] or Sue [Webster], for instance, who haven't really shot off like a rocket but are still at a point where there is a lot of interest in them. They could do a show of 12 works or something, and that could just push them in the right direction. The thing is, it's risky. But I quite like it to be risky. I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet. I've arrived at that point in the art world where there really is a chair that you sit in.

AHG: And in the end, writers will have to go where the art is. If it's on show in an auction house they'll have to go and review it in an auction house.

DH: I don't think it's an either/or. I think certain things will suit that and certain things won't. It will just get more complicated and multilayered and multi-faceted. And it will work better all around. I think about Jeff [Koons]. Maybe he'd put his A.P.s [artist's proofs] in there? He keeps his A.P.s, doesn't he? He might want to do a retrospective thing like that. Or it might be good just to put one out to test the market. And then be able to sell through galleries. The great thing is that the options are there. I don't think I invented anything. It's like I just saw it, just because I did it first. The road was there. It was going to happen.