“The Blue Book / Look at this beautiful canvas I stole. I dragged It all over Manhattan at Midnight looking for a Place to park it. Finally I get up to the Studio. Get it all Set up assistants and Everything. Then in walks, yes, Tony, and I forgot what.” /

The Blue Book, 1989.
Oil on canvas. 60" x 42.5"

“ ‘Brillo’…across my heart / Baby powder in my lungs / Band aids across my eyes / Bacitracin ointment on my tongue / Brush my teeth with hydrocortisone creme / How your love soothes”

Brillo across my heart, 1989.
Oil paint on metal cabinet 24” x 21”

“T or So / Somewhere here is Hidden a heart / Find it. For 2 Years I couldn’t. This was the closest thing.”

Torso (T or So), 1989.
Mixed media on canvas in collaboration with Ed Bryzinski 24" x18"

“I love you / a modern way of saying goodbye / Chinese Baby”

Chinese Baby, 1989.
Mixed media on paper 40” x 26”

Love in Brooklyn, painted in baby blue, light pink, and pale green, depicts a stark image of Brooklyn, which had not yet seen the development spreading across Manhattan: “Love in Brooklyn / Rape / Sodomy / Murder.” Hyperbole or not, Rene’s words bear witness to the chaotic, sometimes violent nature of the city and even his own life.

Love in Brooklyn 1990
mixed media on paper
40 x 26 in / 102 x 66 cm
Signed and dated ’Rene Ricard 1990’
white wood frame

As an author, Ricard's increasing use of text in his work over the 1980's reflects his interest in the written word. His confessional hand-painted and hand-written poetry is almost always accompanied by the artist's signature, often integrated into the composition, or placed at its center, displaying his self-assured confidence.

This confidence (and Ricard's bedroom-eyed allure) attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, and the young Rene (formerly Albert Napoleon Ricard) became his protege. He would appear in three Warhol films, even playing the Factory founder himself in "Andy Warhol Story". Warhol would later call the famously acid-tongued Ricard "The George Sanders of the Lower East Side, the Rex Reed of the art world", and close friend William Rand called the artist “the Baudelaire of Avenue C…a brilliant, elusive and glamorous underground figure.”

By the early 1980s, Rene Ricard was a fixture in the New York art scene, not only as an accomplished artist, but as a critic. Penning enlightening and poetic essays for Artforum, he turned his attention to rising stars such as Julian Schnabel and Alex Katz. Ricard famously wrote the first major article on Jean-Michel Basquiat. “The Radiant Child” is credited with launching Basquiat’s career, and is considered a seminal contemporary art essay.

“Comedy of Eros / There is the joke”

Comedy of Eros, 1989.
Acrylic over silkscreen ground 40” x 26”

“Love at the End / We all know He’s no good and when Worst comes to kingdom come Death will be waiting for him Chipped tooth do-rag and Crooked smile to snatch me with a “What’s up” Be standing immobile and unmovable at the curb ‘’’’’cubist elbows + mannerist hands Like a maiden ??? Cursing me with “I’ll fuck you up” is I arrive a minute (cross out) second too late we be arguing (cross out) two bags arguing on a street corner plunging together into oblivion”

Love at the End, 1989.
Oil and pencil on paper 28.5x 38 in.

Rene Ricard was a poet and art critic who published numerous books of poetry, and his increasing use of text in his work over the 1980's reflects this interest in the written word. Ricard's confessional poetry is often handwritten over spontaneous drawings. Ricard’s confidence (and his bedroom-eyed allure) attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, and the young Rene (formerly Albert Napoleon Ricard) became his protege. He would appear in three Warhol films, even playing the Factory founder himself in "Andy Warhol Story".

Warhol called the famously acid-tongued Ricard "The George Sanders of the Lower East Side, the Rex Reed of the art world." By the early 1980s, Rene Ricard was a fixture in the New York art scene, not only as an accomplished artist, but as a critic. Penning enlightening and poetic essays for Artforum, he turned his attention to rising stars such as Julian Schnabel and Alex Katz. Ricard famously wrote the first major article on Jean-Michel Basquiat. “The Radiant Child” is credited with launching Basquiat’s career, and is considered a seminal contemporary art essay.

Painted in baby blue and grey, this oil painting on natural colored matting features handwritten poetry and collaged elements. The antique print depicts a romantic, pastoral scene, with a statue of cupid drawing his bow by a placid pond. A dog glances up at the sculpture, amid tangled brush. In light blue and grey, Ricard scrawls with unabashed confidence: “Love is a boy / Prince – Frog / But love pointed my arrow at a dog.” Referring to the age-old fairy tale of a frog that turns into a prince upon receiving a kiss, Ricard inverts the fable into one of mundane disappointment. The romantic, idyllic scene pictured in the antique print contrasts sharply with Ricard’s morose musings, smudged as if in anger or by tears.

Ricard may have been inspired by a 17th century epigram “On Cupid: Love is a Boy, and subject to the rod / Some say, but Lovers say he is a God / I think that love is neither god nor boy/ But a mad brains imaginary”

White finished poplar frame 37.5 x 29.75 in. / 95 x 75.5 cm
with 1/2 in. moulding.
Paper 33.5 x 25.75 in. / 85 x 65.5 cm

Ricard was a poet and art critic who published numerous books of poetry, and his increasing use of text in his work over the 1980's reflects this interest in the written word. Ricard's confessional poetry is often handwritten over spontaneous drawings. Ricard’s confidence (and his bedroom-eyed allure) attracted the attention of Andy Warhol, and the young Rene (formerly Albert Napoleon Ricard) became his protege. He would appear in three Warhol films, even playing the Factory founder himself in "Andy Warhol Story". Warhol would later call the famously acid-tongued Ricard "The George Sanders of the Lower East Side, the Rex Reed of the art world."

By the early 1980s, Rene Ricard was a fixture in the New York art scene, not only as an accomplished artist, but as a critic. Penning enlightening and poetic essays for Artforum, he turned his attention to rising stars such as Julian Schnabel and Alex Katz. Ricard famously wrote the first major article on Jean-Michel Basquiat. “The Radiant Child” is credited with launching Basquiat’s career, and is considered a seminal contemporary art essay.