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Damien HirstFor the Love of God, Laugh2007
2007
$16,750
£12,659.68
€14,510.19
CA$23,365.96
A$25,480.19
CHF 13,472.50
MX$306,502.99
NOK 170,968.06
SEK 156,690.64
DKK 108,382.08
About the Item
Damien Hirst (b. 1965) is one of the most divisive, high-profile, and arguably misunderstood artists of the contemporary era.
(In)famous internationally for encapsulating a tiger shark in a tank of formaldehyde, Hirst is the most successful and prolific artist from the group known as the Young British Artists (YBAs). Themes of mortality and decay continue to pervade his practice, evident in installations resembling mirrored pharmacy cabinets and molecular examination of narcotics.
Continuing Hirst's contemplation of the dilemmas of human existence, "For the love of God, Laugh" rebels against mortality by transforming the human skull into a glittering object of desire. Coated with diamond dust, the print depicts Hirst’s sculptural work For the Love of God (2007), a platinum cast of an eighteenth-century human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds.
A familiar motif in memento mori still lifes, the skull is a haunting symbol of contemplation and foreboding. Our attention is drawn to its vacant smile—with teeth remaining as the only element not covered by diamonds—introducing a sardonic humour and sense of defiance that suggests a momentary triumph over decay.
A consistent aspect of Hirst’s practice gestures toward the value we place on art and life, and the various ways we confront the inevitability of death—physically, culturally, and philosophically. This screenprint of his notorious diamond skull crystallizes those concerns with particular clarity, its dazzling surface heightening the tension between allure and impermanence. Hirst’s unmistakable dark wit threads through the work, turning an object traditionally associated with mortality into a radiant, almost seductive emblem of both transcendence and futility.
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"For the Love of God, Laugh"
London, 2007
Screenprint in colors with glazes and diamont dust on wove paper
Signed in black felt-tip pen and numbered 233/250 in pencil on verso
Published by Other Criteria, London
From an edition of 250
39.5"H 29.5"W (sheet)
43"H 33"W (framed)
Very good condition
Provenance: White Cube Gallery, London
- Creator:Damien Hirst (1965, British)
- Creation Year:2007
- Dimensions:Height: 39.5 in (100.33 cm)Width: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 12-251stDibs: LU215217391372
Damien Hirst
British artist Damien Hirst is widely considered the enfant terrible of contemporary art. He is the most prominent of the so-called Young British Artists, or YBAs, a group, largely composed of Hirst’s classmates at Goldsmiths, in London, that began exhibiting together in warehouses and factories after 1988 and is known for the use of unconventional materials and “shock tactics” in his paintings, prints, sculptures and other works.
In the 1990s, Hirst said, “I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.” And indeed, he is notorious for piquing critics and baffling the public with such pieces as his signature glass vitrines containing dead sheep or sharks in formaldehyde, and his diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God.
Working primarily in sculpture, Hirst takes after French modernist master Marcel Duchamp in his use of ready-made objects and materials, which he combines to ironic effect. He often creates in series, as with "The Cure (Violet)" and "The Cure (Turquoise)," both from 2014, which are among several pill paintings referencing Andy Warhol’s embrace of mass production.
Belonging to Hirst's ongoing series of “spot” paintings, begun in the 1980s, the 2005 piece Xylene Cyanol Dye Solution is striking for its machinelike, industrial uniformity and almost childlike simplicity, a seeming rebuke to the idea of the artist-as-genius.
In addition to making art, Hirst has launched stores that sell editioned works (Other Criteria), a restaurant (Pharmacy2) and even his own London museum (Newport Street Gallery).
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