PARIS.- In collaboration with New York-based gallery Karma, Galerie Patrick Seguin presents Olympia – an exhibition of works that range from the early 1950s to today. The exhibition features works on paper from 53 artists, including Rita Ackermann, Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, William Crawford, Jay DeFeo, Carroll Dunham, Mark Grotjahn, Martin Kippenberger, Lee Lozano, Pablo Picasso, Sigmar Polke, Ken Price, Richard Prince, and Tom of Finland, among many others.

The exhibition’s title refers to Paris-based publisher Olympia Press founded in 1953 by Maurice Girordias, who named the publishing company after Édouard Manet’s painting Olympia (1863), which depicts a prostitute, nude and reclining on a bed as a servant presents her with a gift of flowers, possibly from a lover. The press published a mix of erotic and avant-garde literary fiction such as Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Molloy by Samuel Beckett. Girordias was primarily interested in books on the illicit and obscene, which, due to publishing standards and laws against obscenity during that time, were often collected secretly and even smuggled across borders.

Olympia consists of works on paper exploring transgressive ideas as both overt and concealed depictions, as well as examine correlations between commercial illustration and fine art. A list of the artists included in the exhibition can be found on the following page.

This exhibition is the latest in a series of annual shows at Galerie Patrick Seguin entitled Carte Blanche, for which international galleries are invited to organize exhibitions.

Since 2002, Galerie Patrick Seguin has invited 10 international galleries to exhibit: Jablonka Galerie (2002), Hauser & Wirth (2003), Gagosian Gallery (“Richard Prince” in 2008), Eva Presenhuber (2009), Sadie Coles HQ (2010), Galleria Massimo De Carlo (2011), Paula Cooper Gallery (2012), Gagosian Gallery (Calder/Prouvé in 2013), kurimanzutto (2014), and Luhring Augustine (2015).

Carte Blanche to Karma is on view from October 17 to November 26, 2016.