Name: For The Love Of God (four, black)
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 4.9 (183 reviews)

For The Love Of God (four, black)
Signed Print

Damien Hirst

£2,750-£4,050 VALUE (EST.)

$5,000-$7,500 VALUE (EST.)

$4,600-$7,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥23,000-¥35,000 VALUE (EST.)

€3,150-€4,600 VALUE (EST.)

$27,000-$40,000 VALUE (EST.)

¥440,000-¥650,000 VALUE (EST.)

$3,400-$5,000 VALUE (EST.)

16% AAGR

This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

June 2017

Bonhams New York - United States

For The Love Of God (four, black) - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

For The Love Of God (four, black) is an early print after Damien Hirst’s 2007 sculpture of the same name. This print, signed in the bottom right, depicts the skull in three quarters view, in profile from either side, and frontally. The skulls are presented against a black background.

read more about For The Love Of God

For The Love of God (four, black) is distinct in presenting multiple different views of his famous For The Love Of God sculpture in one singular print. The various different orientations of the skull enable the viewer to consider the totality of the use of diamonds. The platinum cast of a real skull is replete with 8,601 diamonds. The white teeth, the original teeth from the 18th century person, stand out against the black backdrop and the grey hue of the diamonds.

Not only have skulls been a recurring theme in Hirst’s oeuvre, but he has continually returned to the For The Love Of God sculpture to produce more prints. However, this early print is one of the first to represent multiple different views of the skull in one sheet. The work ought to be compared to Hirst’s 2011 print, For The Love Of God (four, white), which adopts the same composition. The use of a black background gives the skull a distinct effect – the diamonds and the teeth stand out against the disappearing background. This allows him to explore the materiality of the diamonds: Hirst has previous questioned their intrinsic value.