The skull that British artist Damien Hirst named For the Love of God, is nothing new anymore. But for certain sections of the public, the skull remains a novelty. The exhibition in December at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam drew hoards of people curious to see the skull for themselves. But many in the art world in the Netherlands do not think much of the widely exposed skull, nor of the artist whom they say has gained renown largely due to his attention-grabbing tactics. Yet, whether his works are viewed as art or kitsch, it cannot be denied that the artist has for the past two decades sparked controversy and stirred the world with his inventions that are consistently challenging the boundaries between art, science and popular culture.
Meanwhile, one can’t help admiring his perseverance in getting where he is now. He was born in Bristol in 1965 and was not very clever in school, but got into a foundation course at the Leeds School of Art with the help of his teacher. He was refused admission to Leeds College of Art and Design, but this did not put him off; he simply applied again, and was ultimately admitted. Similarly, he applied again when first refused a place at Goldsmiths, University of London, managed to get accepted on second application, and eventually graduated in 1989.

As for the skull, it was first unveiled at the White Cube in London in 2007. For the Love of God, so titled after Hirst’s mother’s outcry, caused an uproar; a firestorm of debate broke loose. This life-size cast of a human skull in platinum, covered entirely by 8,601 VVS to flawless pavé-set diamonds, and weighing a total of 1,106.18 carats was the artist’s latest “stunt”.
Amid ongoing debate between those who appreciate the work as the ultimate in art and those who consider it no more than hype with a marketing label, there is also artist John LeKay’s accusation that Hirst took the idea of the skull from LeKay’s 1993 crystal skulls. It is certainly not the first time in history that a skull has being adorned. A brief research into skulls soon reveals that the idea of an ennobled skull is nothing new. The Centro Cultural de Santa Domingo has a Mexican jade-covered skull that dates back to between 500 and 750 AD, and the November 2008 International Art and Antique Fair PAN in Amsterdam had a 17th century silver skull with tiny compartments for several scents.
But a skull costing between US$16 and $20 million to make that is recognized as an art work and then sold for $100 million is certainly unprecedented. Such is Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, which Dutch art historian Rudi Fuchs---former celestial director of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam praises as “out of this world almost … it represents death as something infinitely more relentless. Compared to the tearful sadness of a vanitas scene, the diamond skull is glory itself.” Fuchs furthermore relates Hirst’s work to the memento mori and vanitas motifs popular in the Dutch Golden Age.

Yet, the sale of the skull to an investment group of which Damien Hirst is part of has fueled even more criticism of the artist, who was, however, astute enough to include a clause in the sale by which the buyers commit themselves to show the skull in museums around the world for at least two or three years.
The show at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum from 1 November to 20 December 2008, the first stop the touring exhibition, did not stand alone, though it was set apart in a completely black room. With precision lighting flashing off the diamonds, the skull appeared as if suspended in space. Banal or kitch to many, it represents the fleetingness of life to others.

As if to validate the piece as a “masterpiece”, For the Love of God was set in the Philips Wing, where the exhibition of the Masterpieces of the Golden Age were presented, with 16 Hirst-selected 17th Century masterpieces from the museum’s collection. This has shaken the people in the art world of the Netherlands who question whether For the Love of God deserves a place at this reputable museum where it shares a space with Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. While the end of the dispute is not in sight, this has not prevented Damien Hirst’s work, featuring the skull of a 20 year old, from being shown alongside paintings that have long been recognized as masterpieces of the Dutch renaissance. Moreover, the selection of paintings from the Golden Age reveal how fear of death has provided a theme in art over the centuries, and while his diamond-studded skull is perceived as a celebration of life over death, some of the paintings he selected had that very theme as well, accentuated by his personal comments.
In the painting Heraclitus, an oil painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen anno 1628, Hirsts notes “I chose this painting because of the way the head of the man feels more like a skull than a living person at first glance but then you feel the brain inside. His furrowed brow and left hand suggest intelligence and his brain, and then you see his right hand resting on the globe. It looks like his skull and brain are whirling away inside his head, and the spherical nature of the whole world spinning in space and all the skulls of people within it”.
In Hendrick Bloemaert’s Woman Selling Eggs of 1632, the woman’s head again is like a skull to Damien Hirst. “A great image”, he notes, “the beginning and the end. I love the way the egg makes us think of a skull”.
Yet, the skull is but one of his metaphors to explore life and death and the finite times between. As he was making a selection of the Rijksmuseum paintings, he was struck by a painting of Jan Baptist Weenix of about 1650, titled A Dog, A Cat and A Hanging Doe. “I love the look in the eye of the dead buck, he comments. The dog and the cat, usually at odds with each other have a common purpose here. The heart and the guts of the buck exposed like this seem brutal and cruel and undignified, almost like a vision of hell”. But the real skulls are featured in the painting Vanitas Still Life by Aelbert Jansz van der Schoor of 1650 and it’s interesting to read Hirst’s comment on this: “we are born, we look around, we die”. It is like an admission that all men must indeed die; a relinquishing of fear and the fight against death.
As his notes on the Rijksmuseum selection provide insights into the mind of this controversial yet fascinating British artist, the exhibition of the skull together with the Rijksmuseum selection has put more light on the depth of For the Love of God.