Untitled (de Kooning)

Hybrid, multi-limbed, apparently anthropomorphic figures with animal features stand out against a dark background. They are seen from different points of view, not unlike Cubist paintings.

As the subtitle suggests, this work belongs to a series of large paintings in which Richard Prince interacts with, and even appropriates, Willem de Kooning’s work. Seeing the abstract Expressionist master’s Women series in the 1950s led him to create a whole body of paintings, reworking a number of his motifs to result in tortured visions of hybrid, indistinctly feminine and masculine bodies with crude features. This quotation leaves room for great creativity, blurring the line between homage and de-consecration and resulting in an autonomous, vital work.

Untitled (De Kooning) was shown for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2009 exhibition "Mapping the Studio" at the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.