Stephen Prina
American, born 1954
Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet, 41 of 556, Nymphe Surprise (The Startled Nymph), 1861, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, December 31, 1988
Ink wash and offset lithograph
Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet is an ongoing series of 556 diptychs begun on January 1, 1988. The left panel of each diptych is a unique drawing in the same dimensions as a painting by French artist Édouard Manet, executed by applying diluted sepia ink with a natural sea sponge. The diptychs’ right panels, identical from one to the next, depict a grid showing the relative proportions of all 556 paintings known to have been made by Manet. Prina drew his inventory of Manet’s work from an unofficial catalogue raisonné, and created his diptychs in chronological order according to that document.
