The art world is molting - some would say melting. Galleries are closing; museums are scaling back.

Don't go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. They are ecstasy machines.

Of course art world ethics are important. But museums are no purer than any other institution or business. Academics aren't necessarily more high-minded than gallerists.

Poor Georgia O'Keeffe. Death didn't soften the opinions of the art world toward her paintings.

To me, nothing in the art world is neutral. The idea of 'disinterest' strikes me as boring, dishonest, dubious, and uninteresting.

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.