Marking an indirect transition from desire to sketched and painterly form, the beaux-arts ideations of comely ephebes and lost cities by Paul P. find their source in the imagined lives of others—whether interwar characters out of Evelyn Waugh dreaming of Venice (Italy), or 1970s models from gay pornography caught between ecstasy and desperation, dreaming of another Venice (California).
Now on view at the National Gallery of Canada, PAUL P.—AMOR ET MORS situates thirty recently acquired works by the artist—paintings, drawings, lithographs, and Escritoire Nancy, a sculpture in homage to Waugh confidant Nancy Mitford—in conversation with classical works from the gallery’s collection by Annibale Carracci, Paul César Helleu, Charles Ricketts, Simeon Solomon, and James McNeill Whistler.
See link and info below for details.
Through June 11
National Gallery Of Canada
380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
See:
Paul P., “Bacchante with Lowered Eyes,” in Whitney Biennial 2014, edited by Stuart Comer, Anthony Elms, and Michelle Grabner (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2014), 224–227; Ian Wallace, “Paul P. on His Slyly Seductive Paintings and Conceptual Furniture,” Artspace, March 31, 2014; “Unison: Paul P. and Cédric Rivrain in Conversation,” PARIS LA 4 (Summer 2010): 42–59; “Venetian Surfers: Drawings by Paul P.,” PARIS LA 9 (Summer 2013): 80–95.
Paul P., from top: Sunny Suits, Paul P., New York City, 2022; Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas; Untitled, 2009, watercolor on wove paper; Untitled, 2003, graphite on wove paper; Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas; Untitled, 2011, lithograph on wove paper; Untitled, 2007, pastel on wove paper; Untitled, 2010, graphite on wove paper; Untitled, 2011, oil on wove paper; Untitled, 2010, oil on wove paper.
Artwork © Paul P., courtesy the artist and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased in 2020 by NGC with the generous support of Diana Billes, Toronto. Image photographs by NGC.