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Paper 40 in. x 26.5 in. / 101.6 cm x 67.31 cm. Lithograph with silkscreen and relief on cream Rives BFK Heavyweight paper. Edition 28: this impression 19/28. Signed by the artist lower center. Numbered lower left in pencil; dated 1989 lower right in pencil.
An expanse of yellow forms the background of Ricard’s tribute to the opera singer Maria Callas. Her portrait is painted in profile with bold, black marks. The artist Michele Zalopany was Rene’s close friend, and he produced this portrait honoring Michele, and the opera singer Maria Callas, jointly. An expanse of bright yellow forms the background of this bold portrait in profile, painted with bold, black marks. Within her portrait, Ricard wrote the names of some of her most well-known operas and arias, such as Norma and Casta Diva. As in many of Ricard’s works, his freely-written cursive evokes emotion, and the inky black marks increase the drama of this portrait in profile. At the bottom of the composition, “Michele Maria” is written in red.
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.”
