Claude Minière defends Damien Hirst against French critics

In a response published in art press issue 387 (March 2012), Claude Minière challenges persistent French criticism of Damien Hirst's work. Minière argues that Hirst's practice is not mere bluff, kitsch, or commerce but a formalization of contemporary anxieties and fragile victories in developed societies. He contends that Hirst's art—featuring skulls, pharmaceuticals, diamonds, and vitrines—reflects a deep reliance on science to postpone death and bodily decay, manifesting in medication consumption, prosthetics, wealth display, and conservation techniques. Minière rejects comparisons to 19th-century academic "pompier" painting, instead linking Hirst to the disordered encyclopedic devotion to natural sciences that characterized the 1800s. He asserts that Hirst's work possesses a strong logic and artistic sensibility, offering a cold emphasis rather than creative representation, yet not lacking expressive ambition. Minière suggests French aversion stems from Hirst's lack of "Poetry." The response was prompted by Anaël Pigeat's earlier critical stance in the same magazine.