Opening this February, Sadie Coles of London presents an exhibition of new paintings by Richard Prince, his first exhibition in the capital since his ‘Continuation’ retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery in 2008. Showing fourteen expansive canvases, the new body of work will build upon a series of works inspired by Picasso which was unveiled at the Museo Picasso, Malaga, in 2012. Each canvas features an over-painted ink-jet print of a single female figure or giantess – a symbolic hybrid of Prince and Picasso.

 

Prince has always acknowledged Picasso’s influence, saying, “he’s who I grew up with. I’ve always made drawings after Picasso”) and in line with much of Prince’s art, the paintings grapple with the idea of influence, reusing and deconstructing Picasso’s iconography in order to mount a challenge to his iconic aura. The female nude is a focal point in these new works, with Prince playing out - even satirizing - the ways in which the nude is mapped and multiplied in Picasso’s paintings, suggesting Picasso’s own debt to the past (particularly classical nudes) as well as his proximity to more overtly sexualized images. Prince’s paintings assert the undying relevance of art which deals with the body and its portrayal: discussing Picasso’s artist and model series, he has commented “its subject matter that’s there everyday. He never lets go of the body”.

 

01 February - 16 March 2013 @ Sadie Coles, 4 New Burlington Place, London W1

 

Jack Smylie