Damien Hirst is a successful and controversial artist that was born in England in 1965. He is usually regarded as a controversial artist based on some of his unusual works that include spin-art paintings and dead animal displays. He is among the wealthiest artists alive today as most of his paintings are highly priced. Hirst was the leading figure in the Young British Artists movement during the 1980s and 1990s (Biography.com). His career breakthrough came in the early 1990s when he had the opportunity to hold his first solo exhibition, which was at Woodstock Street Gallery found in London.

Damien Hirst’s “For the love of God,” 2007, puzzles me in varied ways. To begin with, I do not understand how this piece is worth £50 million. Most of Hirst’s fans believed that the human skull was worth the asking price. In my opinion, I do not think that this piece is worth the amount it was sold for. To me, it appears as a mere “decorative object”. From an art perspective, I do not see anything challenging or fresh bout it. These are things that one would expect from an artwork priced at such an amount. I cannot help but think to myself what if this artwork was developed by someone else? People would first be struck by its vulgarity. Someone spending such an amount on it would be regarded as an individual with little taste and lacking knowledge with regards to art. The precedent set by Damien Hirst’s “For the love of God,” 2007, artwork worries me because huge fees will now be paid out regularly by collectors in auctions. This aspect will put most artworks out of reach by the public galleries.

Several people have criticized the artwork since its inception. Julian Spalding who is an art critic believes that the artwork “has no artistic content and is worthless as a work of art” (The Telegraph 1). He believes that Hirst’s work is not art at all. O’Reilly and Kerrigan (112) on the other hand assert that the popularity that such an art received would work to diminish the value of the art industry in general. They do not understand why art collectors have started to bid up prices for controversial artworks and then act as museum curators. Damien Hirst’s “For the love of God,” 2007, demonstrates the marketing prospects of the art industry. This is to say that how artists brand themselves determines how their artworks are viewed (O’Reilly and Kerrigan 123).

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