Stephen Prina's "As He Remembered It" Exhibition at Secession: Art, Architecture, and Appropriation

This exhibition by American artist Stephen Prina features a new project for the Secession's main space, 'As He Remembered It,' alongside works from his 'Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet' series. The project explores appropriation and recontextualization of artworks and architectural elements.

Stephen Prina, an American artist known for appropriating and recontextualizing works by other artists, presents "As He Remembered It" at the Secession. This project, developed specifically for the main hall, is rooted in a shared memory from the 1980s with artist Christopher Williams concerning a piece of R. M. Schindler's built-in furniture. Prina selected two of Schindler's early 1940s houses, previously built for Hilaire Hiler and Mrs. George (Rose) Harris in Los Angeles. Using existing plans and photographs, he had the built-in furniture recreated. These 28 objects then served as the basis for monochrome paintings, executed with "PANTONE Honeysuckle 2011 COLOR OF THE YEAR" pink paint. Prina restaged these elements within the main space of the Secession according to a custom-developed grid. The exhibition delves into the concept of how much an object retains its original context when removed and transferred elsewhere. Prina reflects on this by quoting, “It was almost cruel back then to see the furniture, as if it were a severed body part. I described it to a friend recently and he compared it to the phantom limb pain of a severed limb, which can be read about in the writings of Freud and Merleau-Ponty. But later I realized it's not really like that. It’s rather the phantom body, because it is the one that is missing, the body part is there.” By translating, varying, and recontextualizing his source material, Prina creates layered systems of reference that fertilize personal, art-historical, and media narratives. Beyond citation and reference, he thus reflects on the potential of artistic methods of reference in general. Prina also discusses the "principles of translation" inherent in the project, noting how architectural plans were used as starting points due to inaccessibility of the original buildings, and how Schindler's approach to design evolved from fixed concepts to more iterative decision-making during the construction process, potentially serving as a critique of certain forms of conceptual art. In parallel, Prina exhibits four new works from his series "Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet" (nos. 223–226 of 556), begun in 1988. These are based on paintings by the Impressionist Édouard Manet, with Prina partially reproducing them. His drawings adopt the corresponding formats but replace the pictorial content with monochrome surfaces of sepia watercolors. The works, conceived as diptychs, combine an original drawing with a multiple that functions as an index for the overall project.

The exhibition is accessible with general museum admission. Visitors can find ticketing information via the provided link to the Secession shop. The Secession is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM, and is closed on Mondays and public holidays. Specific ticket prices or booking requirements are not detailed on this page beyond the general direction to the shop link for purchase details.