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Auction archive: Lot number 12

Richard Prince

Estimate
£300,000 - £500,000
ca. US$482,831 - US$804,718
Price realised:
n. a.
Auction archive: Lot number 12

Richard Prince

Estimate
£300,000 - £500,000
ca. US$482,831 - US$804,718
Price realised:
n. a.
Beschreibung:

Richard Prince Untitled (Cowboy) 1980-84 chromogenic print 73.7 x 101.6 cm. (29 x 40 in.) Signed, numbered and dated "R. Prince 1980-84 ap" lower right. This work is the artist's proof from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proof.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Catalogue Essay “For a while I never spoke or continued to deny that the “cowboy” images were from the Marlboro campaign. I’ve never thought about the commodifcation subtext in these works. It’s never been an issue for me. These images came out every week, a different one, and it almost seemed like they were being made by me. Every week I would “claim” one.” RICHARD PRINCE Untitled (Cowboy), 1980-1984, is among Richard Prince’s most iconic works as well as one of his most emblematic images. For his Cowboys series, conceived in the early 1980s, Prince appropriated images directly from the glossy Marlboro cigarette advertisements, then re-photographed, cropped and eliminated the text, which once summoned “Come to Marlboro Country.” Through this process, Prince undermines the supposed naturalness of the image, revealing the meanings engrained therein. Further intensifying their own artifice, this subtle act of re-photographing advertising images and presenting them as his own, initiates a new, critical approach to the production of art. As a response to American consumerism and identity, Prince’s Cowboys question notions of originality, authorship and the privileged status of the unique art object. “It is now widely accepted that Richard Prince was slightly in advance of several other artists in his use of this radical method of appropriation known as re-photography, and that he played a significant role in the development of a new, oppositional type of photographic practice, critically described as postmodernist. He was part of a generation that … used photographic procedures to simultaneously redefine photography and art.” (L. Phillips, Richard Prince New York, 1992, p. 28). The photographic practice—certainly since revolutionaries like Man Ray and John Baldessari—has become one of the most critical mediums in contemporary American culture. With its ever-changing technical parameters, the medium transcends any limitations once imposed by its two-dimensionality. Through this dual process of rephotographing, Prince not only revitalizes a populist image, but also resurrects the American cowboy from the prosaic to the extraordinary. Removed from his original advertising campaign, the lonely cowboy becomes a symbol of the American dream, one full of freedoms and pleasures: “The American cowboy of the mind is a romantic, monumental pulp-fiction figure… He is Alexander the Great in chaps and boots. He is colourful, masculine to the point of caricature, a license-plate emblem, a billboard, a restaurant chain, a figure of speech indicating rough fun or brash aggressiveness. Abroad he is the representation of America, so deeply is he embedded in our national character and ethos.” (A. Proulx, Richard Prince Spiritual America, New York, 2007, p. 284). Functioning in the public imagination as a symbol of power, strength and masculinity, the cowboy is an icon of American sovereignty. The Marlboro men exemplify this archetype, amplified by backdrops that draw from the traditions of American landscape painting and the spectacle of Hollywood’s Spaghetti Westerns. The present lot, Untitled (Cowboy), 1980-84, frames a scene comprised of ochre, burnt sienna, black and orange; warm hues that situate Prince’s subject matter at the cusp of dusk. Streaming down from the upper half of the composition, a small heard of galloping horses are pursued by two cowboys. Glints of the sun’s reflection permeate the center of the photograph, leading our gaze to an extended lasso, held up like a golden ring. Indeed, lassos in hand and poised for action, the cowboys appear to be both chasing and guiding the majestic horses through a wide body of water, an allegory of the American dream. Prince offers varied perspectives of the cowboy in this renowned series and through these varied pictures, a storyboard of the cowboy’s mysterious existence and thrilling narrative is perpetuated. There are no details of the cowboys’ id

Auction archive: Lot number 12
Auction:
Datum:
16 Oct 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
London
Beschreibung:

Richard Prince Untitled (Cowboy) 1980-84 chromogenic print 73.7 x 101.6 cm. (29 x 40 in.) Signed, numbered and dated "R. Prince 1980-84 ap" lower right. This work is the artist's proof from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proof.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Catalogue Essay “For a while I never spoke or continued to deny that the “cowboy” images were from the Marlboro campaign. I’ve never thought about the commodifcation subtext in these works. It’s never been an issue for me. These images came out every week, a different one, and it almost seemed like they were being made by me. Every week I would “claim” one.” RICHARD PRINCE Untitled (Cowboy), 1980-1984, is among Richard Prince’s most iconic works as well as one of his most emblematic images. For his Cowboys series, conceived in the early 1980s, Prince appropriated images directly from the glossy Marlboro cigarette advertisements, then re-photographed, cropped and eliminated the text, which once summoned “Come to Marlboro Country.” Through this process, Prince undermines the supposed naturalness of the image, revealing the meanings engrained therein. Further intensifying their own artifice, this subtle act of re-photographing advertising images and presenting them as his own, initiates a new, critical approach to the production of art. As a response to American consumerism and identity, Prince’s Cowboys question notions of originality, authorship and the privileged status of the unique art object. “It is now widely accepted that Richard Prince was slightly in advance of several other artists in his use of this radical method of appropriation known as re-photography, and that he played a significant role in the development of a new, oppositional type of photographic practice, critically described as postmodernist. He was part of a generation that … used photographic procedures to simultaneously redefine photography and art.” (L. Phillips, Richard Prince New York, 1992, p. 28). The photographic practice—certainly since revolutionaries like Man Ray and John Baldessari—has become one of the most critical mediums in contemporary American culture. With its ever-changing technical parameters, the medium transcends any limitations once imposed by its two-dimensionality. Through this dual process of rephotographing, Prince not only revitalizes a populist image, but also resurrects the American cowboy from the prosaic to the extraordinary. Removed from his original advertising campaign, the lonely cowboy becomes a symbol of the American dream, one full of freedoms and pleasures: “The American cowboy of the mind is a romantic, monumental pulp-fiction figure… He is Alexander the Great in chaps and boots. He is colourful, masculine to the point of caricature, a license-plate emblem, a billboard, a restaurant chain, a figure of speech indicating rough fun or brash aggressiveness. Abroad he is the representation of America, so deeply is he embedded in our national character and ethos.” (A. Proulx, Richard Prince Spiritual America, New York, 2007, p. 284). Functioning in the public imagination as a symbol of power, strength and masculinity, the cowboy is an icon of American sovereignty. The Marlboro men exemplify this archetype, amplified by backdrops that draw from the traditions of American landscape painting and the spectacle of Hollywood’s Spaghetti Westerns. The present lot, Untitled (Cowboy), 1980-84, frames a scene comprised of ochre, burnt sienna, black and orange; warm hues that situate Prince’s subject matter at the cusp of dusk. Streaming down from the upper half of the composition, a small heard of galloping horses are pursued by two cowboys. Glints of the sun’s reflection permeate the center of the photograph, leading our gaze to an extended lasso, held up like a golden ring. Indeed, lassos in hand and poised for action, the cowboys appear to be both chasing and guiding the majestic horses through a wide body of water, an allegory of the American dream. Prince offers varied perspectives of the cowboy in this renowned series and through these varied pictures, a storyboard of the cowboy’s mysterious existence and thrilling narrative is perpetuated. There are no details of the cowboys’ id

Auction archive: Lot number 12
Auction:
Datum:
16 Oct 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
London
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