Controversial artist known as the master of re-appropriation, Richard Prince is currently exhibiting at Sadies Cole in London. ‘Cartoon Over Cartoon‘ is a reprisal of the artist’s work with jokes and cartoons via collage and the re-contextualisation of the nude in painting. According to Prince the art of the joke is ‘in the re-telling’.
Juxtaposing humorous text and jokes with lewd cartoon nudes, Richard Prince highlights the inauthenticity of the image.
“Richard collected some nudist cartoons by this guy John Dempsey. He inked jetted them up and drew a kind of hippie drawing over the collected cartoon… kind of like his hippie drawings that he did back in the late eighties. He turned the nudist cartoon into something about free love. Richard always wanted to be part of a commune, but knew that kind of utopia would never work out. At least that is what he figured. It was a good idea, the commune… but in the end…he ended up painting the commune” – Joan Katz.
To celebrate the forthcoming worldwide publication of ‘Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné’, a one day pop-up exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Six Studies in Soho’, opened to the public in London Soho on 25 May.
Upon entrance, visitors could enjoy a black and white portrait of Francis Bacon by John Deakin alongside five Bacon paintings as well as the Triptych, 1987.
Eager visitors were flicking through the first editions of the Catalogue Raisonné in advance of the global release on 30th June 2016. Published globally by The Estate of Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné is a landmark publishing event that presents the entire oeuvre of Bacon’s paintings for the first time and includes many previously unpublished works.
The impeccably produced five-volume, slipcased publication, containing each of Bacon’s 584 paintings, has been edited by Martin Harrison FSA, the pre-eminent expert on Bacon’s work, alongside research assistant Dr Rebecca Daniels. An ambitious and painstaking project that has been over ten years in the making, this seminal visual document eclipses in scope any previous publication on the artist and will have a profound effect on the perception of his work.
In addition to the 584 paintings, the catalogue contains illuminating supporting material, from sketches by Bacon, photographs of early states of paintings, images of Bacon’s furniture, hand-written notes by the artist, photographs of Bacon, his family and circle to fascinating x-ray and microscope photography of his paintings.
The Catalogue Raisonne contains around 800 illustrations across 1,538 pages within five clothbound hardcover volumes and is priced at £1,000 | $1,500 | €1,400.
For sales information please contact enquiries@henipublishing.com
‘Francis Bacon: Six Studies in Soho’ 25 May 2016 6-10 Lexington Street London W1F 0LB
Following recent solo exhibitions at Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; Asia Society Museum, New York; Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland, Japanese artist, Yoshitomo Nara is returning to the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London for a fourth exhibition of new works .
This show features new paintings on canvas, paintings on cotton mounted wood panel and the largest collection of new drawings on paper.
Adolescent characters and animals are depicted with nuanced considerations of alienation, anger and curiosity. Juxtaposed with slogans and often salty language, they are at once cheeky, vulnerable and threatening.
Yoshitomo Nara mentions “This solo exhibition is comprised of ‘paintings’ (on canvas), ‘billboard paintings’ (patched cotton mounted on wood panel) and ‘drawings’ (on paper). These new paintings on canvas are more painterly than other works I have shown previously. They are marked by a conscious use of colour and subtle layering, which has become important in my recent practice. In contrast to my work on canvas, I originally called the paintings on wood panel ‘billboard paintings’, due to their catchy and iconic imagery and the use of flat planes of colour that is reminiscent of the style often used on billboards. Although the ‘billboard paintings’ in this show are still evocative of this style, these ones which are rendered on patchwork cotton are much more painterly, with many layers of colour.
Drawing is natural to me. Without being conscious of the eventual audience, I usually follow my emotions and just draw. For this show I am exhibiting a series of drawings that I think of as being mental images without colour. It is probably the first time that I have shown so many of these drawings all at once. I work in sculpture and installation, but for this exhibition I became very conscious of showing myself as a painter.”
In parallel to the show Yoshimoto Nara created a large scale billboard, visible from the Waterloo bridge, as part of a new project called the Waterloo Billboard Commissions by the Hayward Gallery where Nara exhibited back in 2009. The humorous, manga-influenced piece, titled Marching on the Butterbur Leaf, depicts a young girl playfully encouraging passers-by to fall in step.
The global art fair Art16 returns to Olympia London from 20 – 22 May 2016, showcasing work from more than 100 galleries worldwide and exhibit contemporary art from around 30 countries.
It will be the fourth show since the original ART HK, founded by Tim Etchells and Sandy Angus. As with previous years, the fair strongly promotes work from emerging talent and galleries with two programmes Emerge and London First, curated by Jonathan Watkins
From Retna, Space Invader, Cleon Peterson to Damien Hirst, Pearl Lam and Katrin Fridriks, discover the highlights from this year’s fair.
ART16 until 22 May 2016 Olympia, Hammersmith Road London W14 8UX
Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery just opened ‘Now’, a solo exhibition of work by American artist Jeff Koons (b.1955). While the Parisian institution Centre Pompidou dedicated a major retrospective to the the artist in 2015 in Paris (covered), ‘Now’ is the first major UK exhibition to be devoted to Koons since the Serpentine Gallery’s 2009 show, ‘Jeff Koons: Popeye Series’.
Spanning thirty-five years of the artist’s career, the exhibition features thirty-six paintings, works on paper and sculptures dating from 1979 to 2014. Drawn from Damien Hirst’s collection, a number of these works have never before been shown in the UK.
The Gallery 1 features early works from Jeff Koons like the Inflatable Flowers (1979) , the NEW (1980 -1986) with vacuum cleaners sculptures.
The Gallery 2 features a shiny giant Balloon Monkey (2006-2013) in a mirror polished stainless steel with transparent blue colour coating. ‘ It constantly reminds viewers of their existence, it’s all about you. When you leave the room, it’s gone.’ The monumental sculpture evoques of sensuality with its seductive polished finish and phallic tail.
The next gallery hosts some of the erotic works from “Made in Heaven’ , from monumental sculpture of a Bowl with Eggs to large portraits of Jeff Koons and his then wife Ilona Staller.
The Gallery 4 contains iconic works from the basketsballs floating in a glass tank (1985) to works from his series ‘ Luxury and Degradation’ with Jim Bean- JB Turner Train (1986) in stainless steel and the bust of Italian Woman (1986).
From the ‘Popeye’ series, inflatable pool toys that interact with ready made objects are designed to fool the eyes. Looking like vinyl, they are cast in aluminium and meticulously painted to appear exactly like the real thing.
The last gallery features Jeff Koons’s ongoing Celebration’ series from 1994 to 2014. The illusory Elephant (2003) and Titi (2004 -2009) appear to be fragile, air -filled inflatables, but are cast in heavy-weight stainless steel that mirrors the viewers. The most technically challenging work of his career Play Doh (1994-2014) faithfully reproduces (in an enormous size) a small lump of modelling clay fashioned by his son. The twenty seven individual pieces are cast in aluminium and held together with their own weight.
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