ALEX ISRAEL, LA Californie, Almine Rech, Paris, 2023

Alex Israel
LA Californie
Almine Rech, Paris Matignon, 2023
Exhibition invitation · 14.5 × 19 cm
Offset-printed card stock, recto and verso
15 October–10 November 2023

The recto reproduces André Villers’ 1959 photograph Portrait of Picasso with Gary Cooper’s hat and gun — Picasso in striped shirt, cowboy hat and revolver. The verso carries the exhibition title and details in large condensed typography. The photograph was a primary source for LA Californie, including Israel’s large-scale Self Portrait (After André Villers…).

LA Californie was Israel’s fifth solo exhibition with Almine Rech in Paris. Taking Picasso’s Cannes villa La Californie as its starting point, Israel connected Picasso’s carefully constructed public image with his own longstanding interest in Hollywood, celebrity, props and the performance of the artist as cultural figure. Historical objects, movie props and Israel’s paintings were deliberately placed together, blurring distinctions between artwork, artifact and artifice.

As printed matter, the invitation condenses that logic particularly well: an already iconic photograph of Picasso is recirculated to announce an exhibition in which Israel uses Picasso to examine the manufacture of artistic identity. Image becomes source, source becomes advertisement, advertisement becomes retained object.

Condition: Very good; light handling and minor surface and edge wear consistent with use. Please refer to photographs.