Name: For The Love Of God (white)
Brand: Damien Hirst
Rating: 4.9 (228 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Damien Hirst’s For The Love Of God (white) is estimated to be worth between £2,800 and £4,200. This signed screenprint, created in 2015, has shown consistent value growth, with an annual average growth rate of 8%. This artwork has an auction history of three sales since its entry to the market in March 2016. In the past five years, the hammer price has ranged from £3,491 in November 2022 to £8,064 in September 2022. The average return to the seller over the past five years has been £4,910. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 1,000.

Auction Date

Auction House

Artwork

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

November 2022

Bonhams New York - United States

For The Love Of God (white) - Signed Print

September 2022

Sotheby's Online - United Kingdom

For The Love Of God (white) - Signed Print

March 2016

Christie's New York - United States

For The Love Of God (white) - Signed Print

Meaning & Analysis

For The Love Of God (white), is a screen print from 2015, forming part of Damien Hirst’s For The Love Of God series. The print shows a photographic portrait of a human skull facing directly outwards to the viewer and set against a white backdrop. The skull is entirely covered with diamonds and set with a large stone in the centre of the forehead.

The skull has become one of Hirst’s most celebrated motifs. The sculpture, For The Love Of God (2007), on which this print series is based, has become iconic to Hirst’s name. Fascinated by death as a subject for artistic investigation, Hirst does not represent decay or fear of death with his diamond encrusted piece, but instead transforms this image of mortality into an aestheticised symbol. Hirst’s For The Love Of God series shows up the duality that structures the core of human experience, depicting an object that represents the constant psychic tussle between life and death, beauty and decay, desire and fear, love and loss.

This print was produced eight years after Hirst’s iconic diamond-studded skull sculpture. Much of Hirst’s printed editions are reminiscent of his most famous sculptural and installation works, indicating his obsession with certain motifs and themes surrounding life and death.