Damien Hirst 2007 "For the Love of God"
1. Describe the work, giving details of the form and materials.
Damien Hirst’s “For the love of God” is a cast of a human shaped skull studded with various sizes and shapes of diamonds with the use of the original skulls teeth. It has been made up of 32 Platinum plates, 8,601 Diamonds which weighs 1,106.18 carats. There are 14 varied sizes of the Diamonds plus 1 outstanding one in which theses smaller various sized ones circle it’s around the centre of the skull.
2. What does the work mean? What is Damien Hirst communicating in the work?
Hirst is out to communicate this idea of death, How in certain places it is embraced and even celebrated where as in the other places it is turned a blind eye to because it isn’t what we want to see what we really are, he beautifies this idea of death with diamonds to emphasise that what we do not like what we see so we change it to suit ourselves. Glorifying what we know and how we react to it, the ideas of diamonds convey the aesthetic value of these diamonds in comparison to life and how one and the other can connect. How we weigh our lives on this idealistic view of pure aesthetic qualities.
3. How does Hirst's diamond encrusted skull relate to Mercantilism and to conspicuous consumption?
Mercantilism is this idea of wealth and glory, Hirst communicates this with the diamonds. How the diamonds are often seen as the wealth of today and the aesthetic value of diamonds are worth more than a life, is the idea of how ones wealth is shown through possession.
The industry for diamonds is harsh, out for the kill. Many lives are lost for this insignificant “piece of glass” the worth comes from all the work it takes to acquire it. Death is unthought-of in the eyes of the hungry consumers who want these diamonds to expand their riches.
4. How much did the work cost, and how much was it sold for, and who bought it?
To make this Hirst (who had paid for it himself) around $UK10-15 million pounds, the forehead alone is worth around $UK4.2 million. It has been prices between $UK50-100 million, but official reports say it is worth $UK99 million. He’s has yet to find a final buyer for the skull, but the temporary group have offered around the $100 mill asking price, and he refuses to let their identities to be known. There is still paperwork to be sorted relating this deal. But at this time Hirst still owns the skull, sits in the White Cube Gallery waiting to be sold.
5. What are some of the differing opinions of the journalists in the newspaper and blog articles?
What did they think of the work?
There are many differing opinions about Hirst’s work both being negative and positive. Many find this to be an “unprecedented” piece of work where as many other do not class this as art at all. Private collector Richard Polsky went on to say “The sale keeps Hirst in the news, reinforces the demand for his work and makes everyone who spent money at White Cube feel good about their investment … This is all about investment, not about art collecting” He’s saying Hirst isn’t about creating a collectable piece of work, he’s out there to spend big bucks to make even bigger bucks. Yet there are others such as writer from the TIME Specials Ishaan Tharoor has stated “Damien Hirst is not the world's greatest current artist. But he's probably its savviest” He carries on to say How Hirst is somewhat of a genius to create these works in which the public reacts to, even in the negative ways, he still gets us as viewers to think and discuss his work.
6. Based on your research, what is your opinion of the work, as an object or a work of art?
I enjoyed this artwork and all its controversy. Hirst has caused a fiasco with media and art dealers from around the globe with what may seem as outrageous ides. But Hirst really makes you look at his work, inspect it from all angles to confirm whether it is real or not, the closer and closer you inspect the more real it becomes, and then BAM it’s in your face whether you like it or not. This idea of death and glorifying it in the aesthetic world is like putting make-up on a pig; No matter how much you try and cover it up it is still a pig. It’s if you can accept reality or not that’s what he wants to show you.
Так или иначе Херст не зря потратил свои деньги, я бы сказал инвестировал.
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