Artist Analysis #8

Richard Prince

Richard Prince, "Untitled (Cowboy)" 1989

Richard Prince is a well known photographer, known for rephotographing found images and collages. He began his career as a painter, and making a living by working for TimeLife Inc. clipping articles for staff writers. At the end of the day he would end up with tons of torn out advertisements on his desk. During this time, he became extremely fascinated and repulsed by the images presented in these magazines, mostly focusing on advertisements. He saw them as trying to portray or evoke "hallucinatory fictions of society's desires". What he would do is crop out the text in order to remove the context of the original photo, and sometimes he would cut them up and adding drawings or other photos to them. Some of his works included cowboys, gangs, celebrities, car hoods, and nurse paintings. Prince's main influence was Jackson Pollock, not only based on his abstract paintings but also because he was fascinated with Pollocks loner lifestyle. His work has been viewed as very controversial over the years, because some people see it as a form of steeling or copying. Although because he takes the photo out of its context and re purposes them in a way, his work now days is considered original.  

This particular work the "Untitled (Cowboy)" was originally an image taken from an advertisement for Marlboro cigarettes taken originally by Sam Abell. This series in particular clearly highlights American's dreams and desires and looking at societies attraction to watching others rather than experiencing something themselves. It was printed using the chromogenic printing process, and is 50 by 70 inches.