Damien Hirst

Evening Standard“I can sum it up as shiny shit...” Between them lie the sterile old familiars that, once seen, have nothing more to give. Put bluntly, this man’s imagination is quite as dead as all the dead creatures here suspended in formaldehyde...

The Observer“This retrospective feels honest, at least, in its incessant repetitions...” Everything Hirst makes is quick, slick, epigrammatic, and once the point is delivered – with a poke in the eye or a probe in the id – the sting is gone, leaving only the inert spectacle...

Financial Times“This is art so original and direct that it looks invincible...” The curator, Ann Gallagher, showcases the artist at his boldest, simplest and best – which is also his bleakest...

The Arts Desk“Beauty and bling aplenty...” It feels less like a mid-career survey and more like an obituary. Yes, we’ve come not to praise him but to bury him. Each work is a powerful modern memento mori. Still, I’ll contend that not all of it is smoke and mirrors...

The Independent“Hirst prefers to make statements than pose questions...” One would like this maestro of the macabre to produce a different, more personal work. As it is we have a retrospective that proves his coherence as an artist but not his worth...

Guardian“It is an enormous disappointment...” This exhibition charts a great descent in Hirst's art, one that mirrors the ascent of his bankability and the creation of ever more decadent and overblown artefacts...

The Telegraph“A serious - if wildly uneven - artist...” We emerge from this strange, flawed, but hugely ambitious show with a sense of Hirst's troubled personality. His work is indeed difficult to take - not because it is dumb, but because no one wants to think about the painful subjects it deals with...