Skulls have reared their heads in almost every art form, in every era. And it makes sense. Those empty sockets remind us that the skull was once a chamber full of thoughts, but is now just an empty shell. No matter who looks at them, they’re vessels for the same universal questions around death, mortality and being human. Because, well, everyone’s got one. The skull seems to be reinvented for each generation, too – because everyone’s got to come to grips with the reality that their days on this Earth are numbered.
They’re a reminder of death as the great leveller, too. It’s rumoured that in the Yale University’s secret society Skull & Bones, there are four skulls resting in a private tomb with a German inscription, reading: “Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich, all’s the same in death.” But this inscription isn’t anything unique – it’s existed in various forms around the world for centuries – even as far back as the
Byzantine era.
Glenn ‘Glenno’ Smith, Mambo collaborator and artist, sums it up pretty nicely: “Look, if you’re talking about cheap pop culture referencing, then skulls is it. You know, skulls all the way through. From very early on, as soon as people started to draw things. It’s the whole reason why religion is still a concern with people, it’s mortality, you know?
“People see a skull and whether they’re thinking of it at the front of their mind or not, it’s a reminder that you’re not here forever. You’re very impermanent.”
Memento Mori by Jessica Benhar
Death comes for us all
“Memento mori” literally translates as “remember that you will die” and is an idea that was popularised by Christianity via the Book of Ecclesiasticus, but they don’t get all the credit – similar sentiments can be traced back to Greek philosophers.
Memento mori gained traction with popular art via Dutch painters in the 16th century (think of Rembrandt still life and you’ve got it in one). The scenes, or vanitas, are usually depicted with skulls alongside ephemeral objects – fruit that will decay, the transient life of butterflies – to have us reflect on our own mortality and morality. From Rembrandt, to Dali, Hirst, Warhol, Picasso, virtually every artistic depiction of a skull has some connection to this idea, and the artists their own spin on it.
Jessica Benhar, a Sydney illustrator who collaborates with Mambo, found herself drawn to these pieces like the many ages of artists before her, “I first came across memento mori, like the actual artworks from the 14th or 15 centuries, when I was at the library,” she says.
“I’ve had those inspirations in my reference material since the very beginning … There’s something about skulls and the memento mori that I just can’t stop looking at it. I’m very drawn to it for some reason.
“[In my work] I wanted it to also do the same thing that it was doing those many centuries ago which was help you reflect on life and know that death is down the track so take advantage of the time you have but I also wanted to do it in a way that was a little bit more light-hearted. You wouldn’t mind having it on the wall and it wouldn’t depress you too much.”
Strawberry Skull by Glenno Smith
For heaven’s sake, have you even thought about death?
Perhaps the most controversial skull artwork to exist is that of Damien Hirst’s For The Love of God. The piece is made from the skull of an 18th century man, which Hirst encrusted entirely with more than 8000 diamonds. The skull’s owner was invited to the exhibition opening as the guest of honour.
Commenting on the provocative skull’s impact in book Skull Style, Italian artist Angelo Filomeno says the work was a reaction to society’s happiness and abundance of wealth at the time.
“Up until 2007, we were living in an economic bubble. There was so much money all over the place; art and real estate were booming … Damien Hirst created his diamond skull during this booming period. Damien said with his artwork, ‘I want to slap death in your face’. There was so much money around that he made a sarcastic and brutal joke about wealth and our endless overconsumption of things. At the time, we all wanted to create something shocking, something provocative. And it most always follows that the most highly provocative work ultimately becomes trendy in the art world.”
A year later Hirst would follow up with a diamond-covered baby’s skull for the work For Heaven’s Sake.
For someone like Andy Warhol, death and mortality became an obsession. Following his attempted assassination by Velerie Solanas in 1968, he began documenting his every moment and planned his own funeral years in advance. It was also after this dance with death that he made Skulls – the six famed silkscreen prints on canvas depicting a skull on pop colour background, casting a shadow of baby’s head.
Warhol said he hoped the skulls would have people “become more aware of living by being made to think about themselves … because life is so quick and sometimes goes away too quickly.” Ronnie Cutrone, his studio assistant who helped shoot the initial photography of the skulls, commented that it would be “like doing the portrait of everybody in the world.” Ten years later, Warhol’s last works would be skeletons, too – black and white photographs that arrived at the offices of the art journal that commissioned them the day after he died.
Skulls unleash the wild ones
Skulls have long been associated with rebellion, a symbol of agitation against the system and authority.
Skulls emerged early on in graffiti culture in Los Angeles in the 1960s, not only inspiring generations of graffiti artists but also becoming mixed up with gangs of the day. Mexican-American artist Chaz Bojoquez was inspired by the local ‘cholo’ gang graffiti, playing with symbols and Gothic lettering in his stencils (some of the first ever seen on the streets) on underground tunnels. He ended up creating Senor Suerte – ‘Mr Luck’ – in 1969, a fedora-wearing skull with a mocking smile and crossed fingers. Bojoquez’s branding was so effective, that the local gang members appropriated it as a protection symbol against death for those who bore it as a tattoo.
The motorcycle club Hell’s Angels also adopted a skull as its emblem. Called ‘Death’s Head’, it was designed by former San Francisco chapter president Frank Sadilek a few years after the club’s founding in 1948. It combined the insignia of two US Air Force fighter squadrons, which both depict skulls with wings streaking through the sky.
It so happens that the same year the Hell’s Angels got their official logo, The Wild One starring Marlon Brando – the first rebellious biker film – came to the big screen. Two years later, Rebel Without a Cause came out. It’s not surprising then that these cultural expressions of lawlessness and teen revolt would precede another form of rebellion
in rock and roll.
Qeens Of The Stone Age Poster by Ben Brown
The Grateful Dead were among the first to integrate skulls into their posters and artwork. Artists Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley merged Celtic symbols like rose-crowned skulls – the symbol for ‘carpe diem’ – with the band’s psychedelic aesthetic. But it would be the Misfits adoption of their ‘Fiend Skull’ as their logo in the ‘70s, that would give punk rock and metal ownership of the skull in music. Inspired by the horror film The Crimson Ghost’s playbill, the band crudely painted the skull on their leather jackets and equipment.
Ben Brown and Glenn ‘Glenno’ Smith, Mambo collaborators and artists, identify a lot with the punk and rebellion connections the skull has, having grown up in the punk and metal scenes. Glenno says it was a crucial part of growing his career as an artist, which has led him to draw for bands like The Hard Ons and Slayer. “If you could draw a decent skull for people, then you know, there’s lots of work for you. Lots of t-shirts,” he says. “I’ve worked for some of the most insane metal bands, and some were very wacky people in the past.”
And just like the bands they were listening to, they were drawn to the influence of horror movies, which has made their love of drawing skulls all the stronger.
“It’s all about horror, I love horror movies,” says Glenno. “I love the dark side of, like I love reading about religion and the cults and yeah, it’s definitely an interesting part of the underground that people get wrong a lot of the time. It’s still a lot of fun.”
Ben Brown agrees. “I guess it’s just a reflection of the culture that you came from. Especially in the early ‘90s which it really was a lot more underground than that sort of thing is now where it’s kind of reasonably mainstream and cool. It was seen as very freakish and weird then, you were a bit of a weirdo.”
“I have always loved horror movies and horror comics and things, as a kid I was drawn to that sort of imagery, and then being into hardcore punk stuff when you are young and a lot of the skate culture that I was hanging around all that imagery was part and parcel with the way that you expressed your art.”
Skulls are something that won’t be going away any time either. New generations will need to process the inevitability of death, and artists will be there doing it for them.
“People will draw skulls until there’s nothing but skulls left on the world, you know?” says Glenno. “Nothing but a barren wasteland of skeletons and skulls if president Trump has his way.”