Sylvester Stallone's new art exhibit features some 50 works by the 'Rocky' and 'Expendables' star, painted over the past half-century
“It’s an amazing honor to have my work hanging here, next to some of the greatest artists in the world,” said Stallone. “This gallery world is still a very new world for me.”Galerie Gmurzynska/ artwork Sylvester Stallone
Stallone began painting at an early age, inspired by the experimental work of “action painters” like Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning, whose influence can be clearly seen in the earlier works on display here, which he signed “Mike Stallone.” It was only when these first works didn’t sell — “I used to sell them for $5 to get bus fare” he recalled — that Stallone turned to writing and began his acting career.
But there are strong thematic links between Stallone’s acting and his art. Several of his paintings arethemed, exploring his most famous on-screen characters and the impact they have had on popular culture. Rocky, in fact, was a painting before it was a film. In his 1975 work, Stallone explored the character of an underdog boxer who gets one chance to make it big.
“The elephant in the room is, why show celebrity art? Is it about the art or about the celebrity?” says Mathias Rastorfer of the Gmurzynska Gallery in St. Moritz, who helped curate the Hagen exhibit. “I remember people asking the same question when we first showed Karl Lagerfeld’s art. Now every art museum in the world wants to show Largerfeld’s work. … It will be the same with Stallone.”
Despite the belated recognition of his painting talents, Stallone has no plans to give up his day job. He recently released his director’s cut of
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