“For the Love of God”

In 2007, artist Damien Hirst exhibited a work at the White Cube gallery in London, which is reputed to be the most expensive contemporary artwork ever made. “For the Love of God”, a platinum skull set with diamonds, is one of Hirst’s important and widely recognized works. Its raw materials define it as an artwork of unprecedented scale. The 32 platinum plates making up “For the Love of God” are set with 8,601 flawless diamonds, weighing a massive 1,106.18 carats. The teeth inserted into the jaw are real and belong to the original skull. For Hirst, famous pickled of sharks and bovine bisector, all his art is about death. This piece, which was cast from an 18th-century skull he bought in London.

Entitled “For the Love of God”, apparently in response to a question posed by Hirst’s mother (“For the love of God, what are you going to do next?”) Inspired by Aztec turquoise mosaic skulls held in the collection of the British Museum, Hirst thought it would be great to create a diamond version, but was originally deterred by the prohibitive cost. Upon further consideration, he decided that the ludicrous expense could actually be the work’s rationale. Since it was first exhibited in 2007, “For the Love of God” has become one of the most widely recognized works of contemporary art. It represents the artist’s continued interest in mortality and notions of value.

A reminder of the fragility of life is the main idea of the work. “For the Love of God” provides an illustrative case study for thinking about art and value. It can be viewed alternatively as a glorious, devotional, defiant or provocative gesture in the face of death itself. In “For the Love of God”, we can see capital’s maintenance of itself in the artwork’s surrender to circulation and indifference to form when it comes to its place in the market. Almost by certain alchemy, formaldehyde soaked sharks and dead butterflies are transformed into expertly cut diamonds. For the Love of God has the simultaneous status of money itself and of a product, which is constituted by, objectified labor in the form of raw material and labor as an instrument of the artist’s goals.

Human life is a raw material in the construction of this artwork, not only in the form of the actual skull which provides its mold, but more importantly in the expenditure of life power in the often deadly process of mine working and in death resulting from armed conflict financed by the diamond trade. It's the most expensive piece of art ever created, costing between 16 and 20 million dollars to make, and almost 100 million dollars to buy. Why feed starving children in Africa when you can glue diamonds to a skull? This could only have happened under conditions of the most extreme inequality. Historically, artists have often made valuable trinkets and objects to demonstrate the wealth of the highest echelons of society.