USA: Angelina Jolie purchases three silk screen works of hot commodity artist Russell Young for boyfriend, Brad Pitt

Record ID: 1538223

  • Title: USA: Angelina Jolie purchases three silk screen works of hot commodity artist Russell Young for boyfriend, Brad Pitt
  • Date: 12th April 2007
  • Summary: RED ELVIS PRESLEY 'PIG PORTRAIT' MUG SHOT BIRD HOLDING JIM MORRISON 'PIG PORTRAIT' MUG SHOT YELLOW SID VICIOUS 'PIG PORTRAIT' MUG SHOT AT BIRD FINE ART GALLERY
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2007 09:26
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA9T6XHV7XG7APWSYB3LP6D2QP9
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Artist Russell Young says his 'Pig Portrait's are a reaction to his old career as a celebrity photographer and video director. Celebrity clients are flocking to collect, ironically, silk screens of other celebrities.
    "As collectors Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Joaquin Phoenix, Balthazar Getty, Kirsten Dunst, Kanye West and the Getty Family, Aileen Getty being the main matriarch of that family. The irony of it is that for us anyway, from our point of view, that Brad bought ,I mean Jennifer brought Brad the Steve McQueen canvas one year birthday Christmas, I don't know and then you know after that relationship Angelina this Christmas bought three of the screen prints on paper for Brad. For certain the Sid Vicious and an Elvis Presley and the irony being that you know Brad is the connection to two of those ladies but it's his affinity for Russell work that for when they are looking around to what do you give a guy who has everything?" said Stuart Bird, owner of Bird Fine Art gallery and art dealer of Young's work in Los Angeles, California.
    Titled "Pig Portraits," from the urban slang for a police officer, Young's series of silk-screened paintings catches such icons as Frank Sinatra, Sid Vicious, Elvis Presley, Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Jim Morrison, Martin Luther King Jr., and others.
    "Pig is for police so I was using mug shots and it was reaction to my former career as a photographer and I wanted to sort of show people in their most raw, their worst moments, you know at 04:00 am in the morning, drunk, caught by some clerk or police photographer," Young told Reuters.
    The idea to create "anti-celebrity" portraits for Young speaks to the glamour in the dark side of crime, fame, sex, drugs and rock and roll. The artist describes them as the soundtrack to his life and his heroes that are missing from Art History.
    The British-born artist who works out of a studio in Brooklyn, New York creates his art with images that have been collected from newspaper cuttings, eBay, long correspondence with police departments throughout the world or even given by celebrities themselves.
    New York has a freedom-of-information act and once Young has his hands on a mug shot he likes, he blows it up five feet tall by four feet wide. Then, using a machine once used by Pop Art Icon Andy Warhol, he silk screens the image upon a canvas in a uniform corolla.
    Colour plays a key role - he bathes his subjects in washed-out yellows or faded pinks.
    "I like colours and I like the rawness of the silk screen process I think in the digital age that this is really hand made I think it's a great extension of my photographic career it feels a bit raw and tough and most art or photography these days is created on a computer. This is hands on it takes a lot of you know physical energy to make these pieces as well," Young said at his studio in Williamsburg.
    After spending fifteen years as a celebrity photographer, the first record cover he shot was George Michael's "Faith".
    Young said he would only shy away from working with a mug shot for personal reasons, such as if the subject was a friend.
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