Diamond Skull by Damien Hirst
I mentioned the Damien Hirst diamond encrusted skull being made before, but now it's finished and being exhibited at the White Cube gallery in London.
It is a platinum cast of a skull from an actual person that lived between 1720 and 1810. He was a 35 year old man from Europe. His teeth are still showing, but the rest of him is covered with 8,601 diamonds.
The diamonds are also said to have been "ethically sourced", whatever that means..
Hirst's diamond skull is on the market for about $100 million, which will be a good return on the artist's investment as he spent about $20 million on putting the thing together. That's an $80 million dollar idea! Not bad for an artist out of ideas.
The BBC has a short video of the exhibition online, but they had to turn the cameras off before they got into the room. Here's a couple Damien Hirst quotes from the BBC article..
"It works much better than I imagined. I was slightly worried that we'd end up with an Ali G ring."
Damien Hirst Quote
"I wouldn't mind if it happened to my skull after my death."
Damien Hirst Quote
A lot of people feel very strongly about it, either negatively or positively, but that's part of the job of an artist; to make people think or look at things in a different way. So, in the responses that it has provoked, it succeeds as a work of art.
Do I like it?.. Probably not, but that doesn't really matter. It does make you think about a lot of things though.. life, death, ethics, precious jewels and the mining of them, money, art, beauty.. and on and on.
>> Damien Hirst, Art Controversy
I mentioned the Damien Hirst diamond encrusted skull being made before, but now it's finished and being exhibited at the White Cube gallery in London.
It is a platinum cast of a skull from an actual person that lived between 1720 and 1810. He was a 35 year old man from Europe. His teeth are still showing, but the rest of him is covered with 8,601 diamonds.
The diamonds are also said to have been "ethically sourced", whatever that means..
Hirst's diamond skull is on the market for about $100 million, which will be a good return on the artist's investment as he spent about $20 million on putting the thing together. That's an $80 million dollar idea! Not bad for an artist out of ideas.
The BBC has a short video of the exhibition online, but they had to turn the cameras off before they got into the room. Here's a couple Damien Hirst quotes from the BBC article..
"It works much better than I imagined. I was slightly worried that we'd end up with an Ali G ring."
Damien Hirst Quote
"I wouldn't mind if it happened to my skull after my death."
Damien Hirst Quote
A lot of people feel very strongly about it, either negatively or positively, but that's part of the job of an artist; to make people think or look at things in a different way. So, in the responses that it has provoked, it succeeds as a work of art.
Do I like it?.. Probably not, but that doesn't really matter. It does make you think about a lot of things though.. life, death, ethics, precious jewels and the mining of them, money, art, beauty.. and on and on.
>> Damien Hirst, Art Controversy
