René Ricard

Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) was an American poet, actor, art critic, and painter.

Biography

Early life Albert Napoleon Ricard was born in Boston and grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts, near New Bedford. While visiting galleries on Newbury Street in 1964, he was encouraged to see an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, where he encountered one of Andy Warhol's Flowers paintings.

Acting and literary career As a performer, Ricard was a founding participant in the Theater of the Ridiculous, collaborating with John Vaccaro and Charles Ludlam. He also appeared in the 1980 Eric Mitchell independent film Underground U.S.A. (1980), as well as numerous other independent art and commercial films. Having achieved stature in the art world by successfully launching the career of painter Julian Schnabel, Ricard helped bring Jean-Michel Basquiat to fame. In December 1981, he published the first major article on Basquiat and Keith Haring, entitled "The Radiant Child," in Artforum.

Ricard also contributed art essays to numerous gallery and exhibition catalogs. He was immortalized by Jean-Michel Basquiat in the drawing entitled Untitled (Axe/Rene), representing the tension that existed between the two.

Warhol called Ricard "the George Sanders of the Lower East Side, the Rex Reed of the art world." From the mid-1960s Ricard contributed writings to numerous independent poetry magazines and anthologies. In 1979, the Dia Art Foundation published Ricard's first book of poems, an eponymous volume styled on Tiffany & Co. catalog. The fact that the turquoise-covered book of poems appears in photographs taken on the beach in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin illustrates its ubiquity as summer reading in 1979.

His second book of poetry, God With Revolver (Hanuman Books) was published ten years later, edited by Raymond Foye. The same year he contributed poems to Francesco Clemente: Sixteen Pastels (London: Anthony D'Offay). Ricard released two other volumes of poetry: Trusty Sarcophagus Co. (Inanout Press, 1990), which featured his poems rendered in paintings and drawings and was the basis of an exhibit at the Petersburg Gallery, New York City; and Love Poems (C U Z Editions, 1999) as a collaboration with artist Robert Hawkins who provided drawings for the book. Ricard also saw publication of single-poem works as limited edition artist books: Opera of the Worms with paintings by Judy Rifka (1984), Cecil (2004), and In Daddy's Hand with artist Rita Barros (2010).

Beginning in the late 1980s Ricard's poems were often rendered in paintings and drawings. His work was the subject of several solo gallery exhibitions in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as being represented in many group exhibitions. In 2003, Percival Press published the full-color monograph Paintings & Drawings, illustrating a collection of visually rendered poems by Ricard. In 2004, Ricard created the album cover for Shadows Collide with People by musician John Frusciante.

Later life and death Ricard was portrayed by Michael Wincott in Julian Schnabel's biographical film, Basquiat (1996).

He lived at the famed Hotel Chelsea in New York City intermittently for 40 years.

Ricard died on February 1, 2014, of cancer at Bellevue Hospital in New York City at the age of 67.

Before his death Ricard and the textile designer Madeline Weinrib designed five carpets together which later were realized and shown at the Emma Scully gallery.

Books

Art reviews and essays

Selected additional published works

Solo exhibitions

Film performances In this impressionistic portrait Kurz, Cohn, Meyer and Ricard are shown hanging out at Kurz's Cambridge apartment getting high. The theme centers around a light box made by Gert Stern and Andrew Meyer. Director Saul Levine is a widely respected filmmaker and considered to be a master of the 8 mm and 16 mm formats. He has been making films for four decades and is currently a professor of filmmaking at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. 1965KitchenAndy Warhol16 mm, black & white, 66 minutesTheater of the Ridiculous playwright Ronald Tavel scripted this absurdist satire on the bourgeois household. The filming takes place in a real kitchen, with Edie Sedgwick and Roger Trudeau playing an unhappy married couple. The action is interrupted by various chaotic activities: the running of a blender which drowns out the dialogue, the continual sneezing of Sedgwick and her co-stars, the bustling activities of a house boy, played by Rene Ricard, and appearances by photographer David McCabe, who repeatedly strides onto the set to take pictures of the actors. At the end of the film, Sedgwick burns her finger and Warhol and his colleagues appear on camera.1966Screen Test: Rene RicardAndy Warhol16 mm, black & white, silent, 4 minutesBetween 1964 and 1966 Andy Warhol pioneered a unique type of cinematic portraiture. In the screen tests, Warhol adopted a consistent, disarmingly straightforward approach in which each subject was asked to sit motionless before his stationary camera. Eerily compelling, these screen tests testify to the inexhaustible fascination with the human persona that fueled Warhol's portrait investigations in photography, painting, and film.1966Chelsea GirlsAndy Warhol16 mm, black & white, 195/210 minutesWarhol's most famous film, is a series of twelve uncut reels each depicting the goings-on in a different room of the Chelsea Hotel. The reels are projected side-by-side creating a fascinating split-screen effect. The first of Warhol's films to receive a commercial release. Directed, produced, and photographed by Andy Warhol; Written by Ronald Tavel and Andy Warhol; Music: The Velvet Underground; With: Ondine, International Velvet, Nico, Eric Emerson, Gerard Malanga, Rene Ricard, Mary Woronov, Brigid Polk, Ed Hood, Patrick Fleming, Pepper Davis, and Mario Montez.1966An Early Clue to a New DirectionAndrew Meyer / Victor Hack16 mm, black & white, 28 minutesFeaturing Joy Bang, Prescott Townsend, Rene Ricard. Music by the Unidentified Flying Objects. Cast: Patti Astor, Eric Mitchell, Rene Ricard, Tom Wright, Cookie Mueller, Jackie Curtis, Taylor Mead, Steven Meisel1995On Seventh AvenueJeff BlecknerTelevision pilot, 97 minutesA fashion designer desperately attempts to rescue her father's apparel business, left in shambles by her brother. Rene Ricard in a role as a journalist. The NBC television network passed on developing the pilot into a series. Broadcast on NBC as a made-for-television movie in 1996.1999After the FallMichele Civetta16 mm, color, 10 minutesA father grieves over the loss of his wife after his indiscretions with a young girl. Rene Ricard plays the protagonist of the film and appears in every scene. Student film directed by Civetta while at New York University. Michele Civetta's later directing credits include an ambitious ad for Diesel Jeans and numerous music videos, including those for Lou Reed and Sparkle Horse.2010You Won't Miss MeRy Russo-YoungColor, 81 minutesA kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a twenty-three-year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. Starring Stella Schnabel, featuring Rene Ricard and introducing other notable New York personalities.2014 AsthmaJake HoffmanColorDirecting debut by Jake Hoffman (son of Dustin Hoffman). Ricard plays an extravagantly over-the-top drug dealer named Juan.

Recordings YearTitlePublisherNotes1980Sugar, Alcholol & Meat: The Dial-A-Poet PoemsGiorno Poetry SystemsA double L.P. album; includes readings by Kathy Acker, Miguel Algarin, Beth Anderson, John Ashbey, Barbara Barg, Regina Beck, Charles Bernstein, Ted Berrigan, William S. Burroughs, William S. Burroughs Jr., John Cage, Tom Carey, Charlotte Carter, Didi Susan Dubelyew, Cliff Fyman, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, Daniera Gioseff, Bernard Heidsiek, Peter Gordon, Bob Holman, Rochelle Kraut, Mitchelle Kreigman, Steve MaCaffery, Robin Messing, Charlie Morrow, Eileen Myles, The Nuyorican Poets, Miguel Pinero, Ron Padgett, Patti Smith, Gary Snyder, Ned Sublette, Paul Violi, Andrei Vosnesensky, Anne Waldman. Rene Ricard reads Rene Ricard Famous at 20, recorded at The Saint Mark's Church New Year's Benefit, Entermedia Theater, New York City on January 1, 1979; a version of which was published in Rene Ricard 1979 - 1980 as The Party Manifesto.2001"Give Me Your Hump!" The Unspeakable Terry Southern RecordKoch Records A collection of pieces by literary satirist Terry Southern, best known as the co-author of Dr. Stranglove. Contains a recording (c. 1990) of Terry Southern, Allen Ginsberg and Rene Ricard reading from Flash & Filigree (The Critic; 11:27 minutes).