“Damien Hirst is the Elvis of the English art world, its ayatollah, deliverer, and big-thinking entrepreneurial potty-mouthed prophet and front man. Hirst synthesizes punk, Pop Art, Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, and Catholicism.”

American art critic

Jerry Saltz is an American art critic and columnist, known for his long career in New York art journalism. Since 2006, he has served as senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine. He was formerly the senior art critic for The Village Voice. In 2018, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and he was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2006. He has also taught or served as a visiting critic at the School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, Yale University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the New York Studio Residency Program, and was the sole advisor for the 1995 Whitney Biennial.