Russell Young Kate Moss in Mars Pink For Sale

About this work

Kate Moss in Mars Pink (2021) is a hand-pulled acrylic and enamel screenprint on linen by Russell Young, enriched with diamond dust in a vivid Mars Pink pigment and measuring 38 by 29 inches (96.5 x 73.7 cm). The work presents one of the most iconic faces of contemporary culture through Young’s distinctive aesthetic—an approach that synthesises the bold graphic language of Pop Art with the material luxury of diamond dust, creating a surface that shimmers and shifts with light in a way unique to his practice. Young’s choice of linen as a ground adds further tactile richness to the composition, the woven surface imparting a quality of material presence that lifts the image beyond the purely graphic into something closer to painting. Young’s method—hand-pulling each layer of ink through the silkscreen with considerable physical involvement—gives his works a quality of directness and presence that separates them from photographic reproduction. The layers of acrylic and enamel build a surface of depth and luminosity, while the application of diamond dust transforms the surface into something spectacular. In Mars Pink, the palette is simultaneously bold and glamorous, a colour that amplifies the subject’s celebrity while functioning as a powerful formal presence in its own right. Russell Young came to art-making after a distinguished career as a photographer and music video director, bringing to his visual art practice an understanding of celebrity, image, and cultural iconography that gives his works their particular combination of knowing sophistication and genuine emotional charge. Kate Moss, one of the most photographed and mythologised figures of the past three decades, is a subject ideally suited to Young’s investigations of fame, desire, and the aesthetics of cultural renown. Kate Moss in Mars Pink is among his most striking celebrations of an image that has become, over thirty years, one of the defining faces of its era.