.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Karen Kilimnik's Prince Albrecht at Home at the Castle on School Break is one of a series of works the artist completed in the late 1990s in which she combined two of her greatest loves; pop culture and historical characters from the past. Her intimately painted portrait of a young Leonardo DiCaprio may initially seem at odds with the image conjured up by the works title but it is all part of Kilimnik's distinctive welding together of seemingly unconnected worlds. DiCaprio sits in a darkened room with only the gleaming golden crowns of a heraldic shield interrupting the monotony of the dark background. His tousled hair painted in varying tones of golden brown frames the innocence of his face, as yet unsullied by the machinations of Hollywood.
Like her iconic breakthrough work, the scatter-piece installation The Hellfire Club episode of the Avengers (1989) in which she envisaged the cult TV programme The Avengers as seen through the eyes of the members of the infamous 18th century Hellfire Club, Prince Albrecht at Home at the Castle on School Break combines historical figures with pop culture. Kilimnik claims the starting point for this journey can be found in her own youth and the appropriation of historical figures by the music industry, recalling 'In the '60s, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and everyone dressed up as the 1700s fashion icon Beau Brummell' (K. Kilimnik, interviewed by K. & L. Mulleavy, 'Karen Kilimnik', in Interview, accessed via https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/karen-kilimnik/). This mash-up of contemporary culture and Old Master paintings is her contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of modern painting, and a contribution that proclaims the art of painting is not dead and continues to have value in this ever increasingly technological and celebrity obsessed world.
Like her iconic breakthrough work, the scatter-piece installation The Hellfire Club episode of the Avengers (1989) in which she envisaged the cult TV programme The Avengers as seen through the eyes of the members of the infamous 18th century Hellfire Club, Prince Albrecht at Home at the Castle on School Break combines historical figures with pop culture. Kilimnik claims the starting point for this journey can be found in her own youth and the appropriation of historical figures by the music industry, recalling 'In the '60s, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and everyone dressed up as the 1700s fashion icon Beau Brummell' (K. Kilimnik, interviewed by K. & L. Mulleavy, 'Karen Kilimnik', in Interview, accessed via https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/karen-kilimnik/). This mash-up of contemporary culture and Old Master paintings is her contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of modern painting, and a contribution that proclaims the art of painting is not dead and continues to have value in this ever increasingly technological and celebrity obsessed world.