Richard Prince

by Glenn O'Brien, Jack Bankowsky, Richard Prince (Artist)

For 30 years now, the American artist Richard Prince has been considered one of the most forward-thinking and innovative artists in the world. In 1977, his deceptively simple act of re-photographing advertising images from The New York Times Magazine and presenting them as his own ushered in an entirely new, critical approach to making art--one that questioned notions of originality and the privileged status of the unique aesthetic object. Prince's technique involves appropriation, and he pilfers freely from the vast image bank of popular culture to create works that simultaneously embrace and critique a quintessentially American sensibility, with images stemming from the Marlboro Man, muscle cars, biker chicks, off-color jokes, gag cartoons and pulp fiction novels, among many other sources. Organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, this major traveling retrospective brings together Prince's photographs, paintings, sculptures and works on paper in the most comprehensive examination of his work to date. While previous examinations of Prince's work have emphasized its catalytic role in Postmodernist criticism, this volume also focuses on the work's iconography and how it registers prevalent themes in our social landscape, including a fascination with rebellion, an obsession with fame and a preoccupation with the tawdry and the illicit.
Highlighting key examples from the all the major series of Prince's oeuvre, this fully illustrated volume also debuts works created specifically for the exhibition. It features a critical overview by the Guggenheim Museum's Nancy Spector and an essay by Artforum Editor-at-Large Jack Bankowsky, which discusses Prince's environmental installations, including the Spiritual America Gallery , his First House and Second House , and his Library in Upstate New York. In addition, cultural commentator Glenn O'Brien contributes a series of interviews with popular culture initiators like Annie Proulx, Phyllis Diller, John Waters, Michael Ovitz, Kim Gordon and Robert Mankoff, among many others, providing a composite portrait of Prince's themes alongside an insider's view of the formation of mass-cultural taste.

Genres: Art

368 pages, Hardcover

First published August 6, 2007

About the author

Glenn O'Brien was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in GQ magazine, and published a book with that title.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two years ago, the Guggenheim Foundation bought Richard Prince's Second House in Upstate New York. This year, a survey exhibition of Prince's work, "Spiritual America" opened at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. It's funny sometimes what can lead one to seek out more information about an artist. The recent Art Issue of "W" magazine made me curious about Richard Prince. The covers of that issue were "rephotographs" of paparazzi pics of movie stars with fake autographs signed by Prince. And beyond that, a photo essay of designer Marc Jacobs' home showed some of Prince's work on the walls. (Another picture in this issue shows Matthew Barney hurling on a sailboat, another image I never thought I'd see in a fashion magazine.) This led me to read the monograph published in conjunction with the Guggenheim show (which runs through January 9, 2008.) What's great about this book is that most of those interviewed about the art of Richard Prince are not people from the Art World Establishment. Comedians (Phyllis Diller!), a rare book dealer, the editors of a tabloid and of a biker magazine, a songwriter, cartoon editors, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, the VP of design for Ford Motor Co. and Sonny Barger, notorious member of the Hell's Angels. This diverse list of fans reflects the wide range of territory Prince has explored over the past 30 years. His photography might be a picture of a detail of a magazine advertisement, his sculpture a restored 1971 'Cuda muscle car sitting in the grass outside his Second House, his painting a large canvas with a recycled Rodney Dangerfield joke, a drawing simply a collage of "redrawn" New Yorker cartoons. Prince's impressive collection of rare books includes foreign editions and bound galley proofs of work by two of my favorite writers: Kerouac and Brautigan. This monograph is refreshingly void of the academic artspeak nonsense of many Contemporary Art publications. A lot of Richard Prince's artwork just looks cool, and Phyllis Diller and John Waters express that simple declaration better than any critic from Artforum. I plan to visit Minneapolis next year to see for myself when "Spiritual America" travels to the Walker Art Center, running from March 22 through June 15.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can art be more real than life?

Underneath each picture is always another picture.

Now we've got a body with two sexes, maybe more, and a head that looks like it's got a different birthday.

To make it new was to make it again, and making it again was enough for him and almost him.

What is the void that all his all his assumed identities conceal?

The cowboy of the mind is everywhere.

[Tom Choi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great humorist; a good critic; a decent, occasionally brilliant, visual artist. The reproductions of the "Nurse" series are alone worth the steep price. Also noteworthy are the collection of interviews with fellow artists, critics and celebrities from all walks of life and Richard Prince's interesting take on his own biography.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

An excellent catalogue and survey of one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century up until today.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the art and some of the interviews (Phyllis Diller!)