NEW YORK - A well-known British artist is exhibiting collage portraits of President Bush and Paris Hilton he made out of porn magazine images.
Jonathan Yeo's portrait of Hilton was bought by artist Damien Hirst ahead of Thursday's show opening, said Lazarides Gallery spokeswoman Elizabeth Barrett, who didn't know the sale price.
Yeo has painted portraits of Tony Blair, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rupert Murdoch and Prince Philip.
He got the idea for the collages following the cancellation of a commission by the White House to paint Bush in 2004. He made the portrait, anyway, but in the form of a collage using pieces of pornographic magazines.
Barrett said posters of the Hilton portrait, titled "Paris, 2008," will be sold for $20 each at the gallery.
She said Yeo was offering Hilton proceeds from the sale of the posters as a "lighthearted" gesture because the hotel heiress has said she didn't receive any money from the notorious 2004 sex video that starred her and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon.
Hilton was in New York on Thursday to tape an appearance on CBS' "Late Show" with David Letterman. Her manager did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
The London-based Lazarides Gallery will operate the temporary gallery, called a pop-up, at a former restaurant supply store on the Bowery. The two-week show, "The Outsiders," opens to the public Friday.
