Drip Portraits 2000

Paul Richard is a multidisciplinary artist, known for his rich, detailed oil portraits—like the one of Judge Marie M. Lambert hanging in New York Surrogate's Court—as much as his “Designated Art,” where he places museum-style plaques on everyday street items, such as a fire hydrant, sometimes even adding a price tag.

One of Richard’s most lasting series is the drip paintings, which can be found in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This one, a portrait of himself at the northeast corner of Spring and Elizabeth Streets, was created like the others: with a small can of black paint, Richard skillfully and quickly drips the shape onto the sidewalk.

Richard believes that art should be accessible. He appreciates that the sidewalks have larger audiences than the galleries, even if most of the people walking over his art every day hardly notice it—or if they do, they don’t know who made it. Richard’s unconventional approach doesn’t stop at the sidewalk, he once received permission from the manager of the Astor Place Kmart to do a show involving portraits of the employees, and it was up within days. Unimaginable in the gallery world where putting up a show takes years.

And Richard has a keen eye for the ironic. He once hung a “For Sale” sign on Boston’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and much of his art plays on the fact that it is technically graffiti. He has posted large boards on blank walls with the message, “Please No Graffiti On This Wall. Thank You, Paul Richard.” And when a Shephard Fairey commissioned mural at the Houston Bowery Wall was completed, he hung large white signs—one stated “Please No Graffiti”—directly on the mural discouraging others from defacing the wall, even though his own signs technically did just that.