Rocco Ritchie, son of Madonna and Guy Ritchie, could be an artist working under the pseudonym Rhed and showing at Tanya Baxter Contemporary in London.
The sleuths at Web site Six say they’ve sussed out the identification of this “emerging artist” (Rocco is 21). Suggesting a link is the point that the international megastar and her ex ended up at the 2018 opening of Rhed’s debut present with the gallery, in accordance to the Each day Mail. Rocco was also in attendance.
“We proceed to respect the artist’s prerogative to remain nameless,” Baxter advised Artnet News by means of electronic mail. “Much the very same way Banksy chooses to hold his identification unfamiliar Rhed will keep on being incognito.”
Madonna’s publicity agent was not immediately reachable.
The gallery is not concerned to make outsize claims for the artist—for case in point, asserting that his do the job remembers that of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy (judging by the photos on her web site, it does not) and that his 2018 debut took the London art world by storm (we can not locate any assessments, although a a lot more current clearly show did garner a “must see” mention on a area weblog, whose author says his get the job done has “reminiscences of Bacon, Kossoff, Freud, and a sprint of early Picasso,” which is not entirely completely wrong).
In fact, Rhed’s paintings depict the human determine in muted colours, at times creating express pop-tradition references, as in the portray Gosling (no dates are specified), which could possibly depict actor Ryan Gosling, by it’s tricky to convey to, considering that there is no likeness in the generic male figure’s startled-searching encounter. There is also Belle du Jour, which maybe refers to Luis Buñuel’s 1967 movie Belle de Jour, starring Catherine Deneuve as a bored housewife who tries out performing at a brothel, even though again the figure depicted bears no resemblance to the feasible topic (down to a thick head of black hair). Probably a clue to the artist’s hidden id lies in the painting Rhed-M, exhibiting a blond girl. Could the M stand for Madonna? Mom? Only the artist knows for positive.
What else do we know about Rhed? The press launch for his summertime 2020 exhibition, “Personae and Portraits,” indicates that he attended the Royal Drawing College, and prior to that, Central Saint Martins (whose notable graduates involve Steve McQueen, PJ Harvey, M.I.A., Pierce Brosnan, and Antony Gormley). It features endorsements from critics Godfrey Barker (“one to watch”) and Hilary Binks (“he has matured as a painter”), as well as Oisin Fanning, CEO of San Leon Electricity (“a extra confident artist”).
Rhed’s paintings are also on provide at Artsy, wherever charges vary from £12,800 to £24,000 (about $17,000 to $31,700).
As the Webpage Six writer details out, the possible top secret id of Rhed smacks of an additional raging art-globe controversy: Hunter Biden, son of the U.S. president, who lately experienced a present at New York’s Georges Bergès Gallery, the place works ended up on provide for as a great deal as $500,000, a punchy rate for an artist’s debut. In Biden’s scenario, moral thoughts arise, because potential buyers could likely curry favor with the chief of the absolutely free planet. It’s not distinct whether or not there are comparable quandaries about expending $17,000 on a painting by the son of the queen of pop.
At minimum the costs are a whole lot more sensible.
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