Damien Hirst: the artist we deserve

There is the pervasive sense of a joke being played on the crowd, a sense that has developed ever since the young Hirst said he wanted to get to the point where he could get away with bad art.But glance into that crowd and it suddenly seems like folly to damn Damien too quickly. All around, people are looking – really looking – at objects in new ways, an important aim for any artist.

A more self-confident era might expect its artists to say something solid instead, but Hirst's preoccupations – purposeless, plutocratic, even pharmaceutical – are the preoccupations of our age. He is, perhaps, the artist we deserve.