“When I first saw this painting, it felt like a punch in the gut.”
R ichard Prince’s Man-Crazy Nurse doesn’t just provoke—it disorients. With blood-red strokes, a masked face, and echoes of pulp fiction seduction, the work draws you in with its surface allure and leaves you grappling with something far deeper.
A blurred figure, soaked in desire and menace, emerges from a searing field of red. The nurse—at once eroticized and obscured—straddles the line between healing and harm, vulnerability and power. Behind the mask is not just a face, but a statement about authorship, identity, and the unsettling overlap of sex and mortality.
The result is both viscerally charged and conceptually sharp—a painting that stares back.
Presented in partnership with CELINE, Richard Prince’s Man-Crazy Nurse will be offered live at auction on 15 May at 6:30 PM EST as a highlight of Selections from the Collection of Barbara Gladstone—a dedicated Evening Sale celebrating the visionary taste and legacy of the renowned American art dealer and film producer. The auction is led by exceptional works by Richard Prince, Elizabeth Peyton, On Kawara, Thomas Schütte, Mike Kelley, Carroll Dunham, and others.
