Keith Coventry

Keith Coventry’s White Abstract: Wedding Kiss, Charles and Diana transforms an iconic wedding photograph of Prince Charles and Princess Diana into a white monochrome abstraction. The photograph, the only one ever taken of the Prince and Princess kissing in public, created a scandal in the face of aristocratic decorum. Coventry explores the tension between traditional values and contemporary society by employing the language of abstraction, referring in particular to Russian Suprematist paintings by Kazimir Malevich or the more recent white paintings of Robert Ryman. The work depicts iconic aristocratic imagery, but by limiting his palette to white, Coventry drains the represented subjects of any blood or life, and suggests the waning political and symbolic strength of royalty.