Punk Picasso (Signed and Numbered)

Larry Clark
Punk Picasso (Signed and Numbered)

Photographs: Larry Clark

Publisher: AKA Editions

496 pages

Year: 2003

Comments: Signed and numbered sewn paperback in slipcase, 28 x 22 cm. Includes a folding poster. Excellent condition other than a small bump on the bottom right corner of the spine. RARE!

The title of Larry Clark’s opus punk Picasso is lifted from a passage in David Denby’s review of the artist’s film, Bully that reads “…as the camera wanders-grazes among naked thighs and tattooed torsos, this punk Picasso combines the multiple desires of lover, artist and voyeur…” The book displays, in scrapbook format, a loose chronological overview of the celebrated artist’s provocative career.

The material presented spans family snapshots (his American Indian great grandfather, his father playing golf, a portrait of his mother as a professional photographer with Rollei and flash in hand, Clark with his son’s soccer team); unpublished images from Tulsa and 42nd St.; photographs from the set of his first film Kids and his new film Ken Park; clippings from reviews of exhibitions and films; correspondence; transcribed stories; Roger Maris ephemera; portraits of skateboarders, River Phoenix (images appropriated from Teen Magazines), Clark’s lover Tiffany and their dog Snappy; Page Six headlines and reproductions of vinyl records that act as a silent soundtrack to the raucous visual narrative.

punk Picasso gathers together scraps that chart the life of the artist and his creations, which in Clark’s case, are inseparably entwined.