For The Love Of God
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''For the Love of God'' is a sculpture by artist
Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...
produced in 2007. It consists of a
platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...
cast of an 18th-century
human skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead that is known as the Skull Star Diamond. The skull's teeth are original, and were purchased by Hirst in London. The artwork is a '' memento mori'', or reminder of the mortality of the viewer. In 2007, art historian
Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born 28 April 1942) is a Dutch art historian and curator. Personal life Rudolf Herman Fuchs was born on 28 April 1942 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He studied art history from 1967 to 1975 at Leiden University, aft ...
described the work as "out of this world, celestial almost. It proclaims victory over decay. At the same time it represents death as something infinitely more relentless. Compared to the tearful sadness of a
vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-kn ...
scene, the diamond skull is glory itself." Costing £12 million to produce, the work was placed on its inaugural display at the White Cube gallery in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in an exhibition ''Beyond Belief'', with an asking price of £50 million. This would have been the highest price ever paid for a single work by a living artist. In January 2022, Hirst stated that he still co-owned the sculpture, and that it was in storage in London.


Production

The base for the work is a human skull bought in a shop in Islington. It is thought to be that of a 35-year-old European who lived between 1720 and 1810. The work's title was supposedly inspired by Hirst's mother, who once asked, "For the love of God, what are you going to do next?" Designed and sculpted by Jack du Rose and manufactured by the Piccadilly jewellers Bentley & Skinner, 8,601 flawless pavé-laid diamonds, weighing in total , over a platinum cast, cover the entirety of the skull. At the centre of the forehead lies a pear-shaped pink diamond, the centrepiece of the work. All diamonds used for the work are said to be ethically sourced. Hirst stated the idea for the work came from an
Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...
skull at the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. However, artist
John LeKay John LeKay (born 1 June 1961) is an English conceptual and installation artist and sculptor, who lives in New York City.
, a friend of Hirst's in the early 1990s, said the work is based on a skull covered with
crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macro ...
s which LeKay had made in 1993. LeKay said, "When I heard he was doing it, I felt like I was being punched in the gut. When I saw the image online, I felt that a part of me was in the piece. I was a bit shocked."


Exhibition

On 1 June 2007, ''For the Love of God'' went on display in an illuminated glass case in a darkened room on the top floor of the White Cube gallery in
St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the d ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
with heavy security.BBC news report
retrieved 1 June 2007.
It was reported on 11 June 2007 that the singer George Michael and his partner Kenny Goss were interested in purchasing the piece for around £50 million.Yahoo! Music (UK)
retrieved 11 June 2007
During November–December 2008, Hirst exhibited the diamond skull at the historic Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, amidst public controversy. The skull was exhibited next to an exhibition of paintings from the collection of the museum that were selected and curated by Hirst. According to Wim Pijbes, the museum director, there wasn't controversy amongst the board members. He explained that the exhibition "will attract people—and give a new aspect to the image of the Rijksmuseum as well. It boosts our image. Of course, we do the Old Masters but we are not a 'yesterday institution'. It's for now. And Damien Hirst shows this in a very strong way." A Belgian journalist in response remarked how the installation of the diamond skull at the Rijks was "an intentionally quite controversial project". ''For the Love of God'' was also displayed in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, and at
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, London, between 4 April 2012 and 25 June 2012. The work was displayed at Hirst's first solo exhibition in the Middle East, at the Relics Exhibition of
Doha, Qatar Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...
from 10 October 2013 to 22 January 2014. Between 16 September and 15 November 2015 the skull was displayed at
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. The collection's main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it is ...
in Oslo, Norway.


Sale

Hirst said that the work was sold on 30 August 2007, for £50 million, to an anonymous consortium. Hirst claimed he had sold it for the full asking price, in cash, leaving no paper trail. The consortium that bought the piece included Hirst himself. In the 6 February 2012 issue of ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine, Hirst elaborated, in his "10 Questions" interview: "In the end I covered my fabrication and a few other costs by selling a third of it to an investment group, who are anonymous." In January 2022, Hirst stated the sculpture was still owned by him, along with the White Cube gallery and undisclosed investors, and was in storage in a
Hatton Garden Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favouri ...
vault in London. This was taken by Artnet as meaning that the 2007 sale had never happened.


Media reporting and reviews

The media coverage of the "sale" of the diamond skull was extensive and led some to question to what extent the announcement of the sale was some kind of media art, especially as the "sale" continues to be in question. This was further supported by the performative nature of the Sotheby's exhibition and auction of Hirst's artwork the following year. In an article in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'',
Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...
said, "Damien Hirst is a brand, because the art form of the 21st century is marketing. To develop so strong a brand on so conspicuously threadbare a rationale is hugely creative - revolutionary even." Richard Dorment, art critic of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'', wrote: "If anyone but Hirst had made this curious object, we would be struck by its vulgarity. It looks like the kind of thing
Asprey Asprey International Limited, formerly Asprey & Garrard Limited, is a United Kingdom-based designer, manufacturer and retailer of jewellery, silverware, home goods, leather goods, timepieces and a retailer of books. Asprey's flagship ret ...
or Harrods might sell to credulous visitors from the
oil states A petrostate or oil state is a nation whose economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and export of oil or natural gas. The presence alone of large oil and gas industries does not define a petrostate; countries like Norway, Canada, and the Uni ...
with unlimited amounts of money to spend, little taste, and no knowledge of art. I can imagine it gracing the drawing room of some African dictator or Colombian drug baron. But not just anyone made it - Hirst did. Knowing this, we look at it in a different way and realise that in the most brutal, direct way possible, ''For the Love of God'' questions something about the morality of art and money."
Ralph Rugoff Ralph Rugoff (born 12 January 1957) is an American-born curator, the director of London's Hayward Gallery since 2006, and the curator of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Rugoff was born in New York City, the son of a film distributor father and a psy ...
of the
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
in London criticised the work as a mere decorative object, saying "It's not challenging or fresh. It's a decorative object which is not particularly well done." The performative nature of Hirst's work was later addressed in the exhibition at Tate Modern, "Pop Life: Art in a material world", which critic Ben Lewis found very offensive: "the gallery texts have the temerity to claim that the greed-fuelled auction sale was a work of performance art in itself. That's just the same as Stockhausen calling 9/11 a work of art."


Artistic responses

In June and July 2007 Polish artist Peter Fuss presented his work ''For the Laugh of God'' at the exhibitions in Gdańsk and
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
parodying Hirst's ''For the Love of God''. The work was a plastic human skull covered in "artificial diamonds". A photo of the work thrown out with rubbish bags outside the White Cube gallery was a spoof by artist Laura KeebleLaura Keeble "Forgotten Something?"
/ref> who created a replica skull with 6522 Swarovski crystals. In 2008, the Gaelic-language publisher Ùr-sgeul published a short story by Maoilios Caimbeul, "An Claigeann aig Damien Hirst" ("Damian Hirst's Skull"), as a fictional response to the work of art. This in turn was followed in 2009 by a single performed by the Gaelic rock band,
Na Gathan Na Gathan is a Scottish Gaelic Indie rock band from the Isle of Skye. History Na Gathan were formed in 2007 and first came to national attention in Scotland when they appeared in a piece on the Rapal music programme on BBC2 that documente ...
, "Claigeann Damien Hirst" ("Damian Hirst's Skull"), released by Ùr-sgeul, which was inspired by Caimbeul's work. The song was shortlisted in the Nòs-ùr contest for a new song in a Celtic language or Scots. In December 2008 Hirst threatened to sue the artist Cartrain for copyright infringement. Cartrain had incorporated photos of ''For the Love of God'' into collages and sold them on the Internet.Preece, Robert. (June 2009)
"Reality check: When appropriation becomes copyright infringement"
''
Sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
'' / ''AD&P''. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
In 2009, Spanish artist Eugenio Merino unveiled a piece entitled ''"4 The Love of Go(l)d"'', a giant sculpture, encased in glass, of Hirst shooting himself in the head. Merino, in fact an admirer of Hirst, intended the piece as a comment on the emphasis on money within the art world, and with Hirst in particular. "I thought that, given that he thinks so much about money, his next work could be that he shot himself", said Merino. "Like that the value of his work would increase dramatically ... Obviously, though, he would not be around to enjoy it." In 2015, the band Rosie released a song called "For The Love of God", which contains lyrics written from the perspective of the jewelled skull. The song was featured in the rhythm video game '' The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor''.


In popular culture

The piece appears in the second episode of the American-Japanese animated television series ''
Neo Yokio is an adult animated web series, streaming television series created by Ezra Koenig of American rock band Vampire Weekend, and produced by Japanese anime studios Production I.G. and Studio Deen. The first season, consisting of six episodes, prem ...
'', when it is possessed by a demon at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. A skull that looks similar to ''For the Love of God'' serves as the driving force in the video game '' 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand''. ''For the Love of God'' graces the cover art of Canadian rapper
Tory Lanez Daystar Shemuel Shua Peterson (born July 27, 1992), known professionally as Tory Lanez, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and convicted felon. He received initial recognition from the mixtape ''Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story'', rel ...
's single "Diamonds", which he released on
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...
in 2017. In issue #10 of the 2016 comic book series ''
The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...
'', a similarly gem-encrusted skull appears in an art gallery.


See also

*
Crystal skull Crystal skulls are human skull hardstone carvings made of clear or milky white quartz (also called "rock crystal"), claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders; however, these claims have been refuted for all of th ...
* Munditia *
Catacomb saints Catacomb saints were the bodies of ancient Christians that were carefully exhumed from the catacombs of Rome and sent abroad to serve as relics of certain saints from the 16th century to the 19th century. They were typically lavishly decorated wit ...
*
List of diamonds Diamonds become famous typically for some combination of their size, color and quality. Diamonds occur naturally in many different colors, so the largest diamond of a particular color may not be large in absolute terms, but it may still be consid ...
*
List of most expensive sculptures This is a list of the highest known prices paid for sculptures. Most valuable sculpture Alberto Giacometti's ''L'Homme au doigt'' was auctioned for $141.3m at Christie's in May 2015, the highest price for any sculpture at auction. Giacometti's '' ...


References


External links


''frieze'' review of ''For the Love of God''Pictures of the work's manufactureInterview with video
*Parody of ''For the Love of God'' by artists from Poland
Dead Drop Collector Glass
for drink, with skull inside by Cute Cube Collective
1106.18 carats in gramsArt theoretical text featuring Hirst's ''For the Love of God'': Bergande, W.: "The Liquidation of Art in Contemporary Art", in: ''Nordic Journal of Aesthetics'' No. 47 (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:For the Love of God (artwork) 2007 sculptures Works by Damien Hirst English contemporary works of art Platinum sculptures 2007 in England Sculptures in London Skulls in art