Damien Hirst Jumps on the ‘Design for Lance Armstrong’ Bandwagon, Snubs the Royal Academy of Art

Apologies for the quietness from this writer yesterday. He was staying up far too late working on a top secret project for work. But that’s neither here nor there because right now we have Damien Hirst news, which is always fun. First up, bicyclist and wristband-enthusiast Lance Armstrong has announced that Hirst has offered to design a bicycle for him for the last leg of the Tour de France. So, following his new bikes by Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf back in May, we’re guessing that this means either a) Armstrong now wants to be seen only on conveyances painted by famous designers, or b) Hirst read somewhere about Scharf and Fairey’s contributions and wanted a piece of the action. Second up, after more than a year of hemming and hawing, the Royal Academy of Art offered Hirst membership as a Royal Academician, to which the artist said no thanks, but without much further explanation. Our guess is that he was too busy designing bikes. Or more skateboards.

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