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140

RICHARD PRINCE (American, b. 1949) UNTITLED signed, editioned and dated

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RICHARD PRINCE (American, b. 1949) UNTITLED signed, editioned and dated
RICHARD PRINCE (American, b. 1949) UNTITLED signed, editioned and dated "[signature] 25/25, 94" in black ink on verso Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) print 23 1/2 x 15 7/8 in. (59.7 x 40.3 cm) 1994 this print is number 25 from an edition of 25 from the GIRLFRIEND series from the portfolio PORTRAITS, Printed Matter, NEW YORK, 1995 PROVENANCE Private Collection, NEW YORK A seminal appropriation artist, Richard Prince has garnered critical acclaim for re-shooting other people's photographs. In his earliest work, Prince tended to quote mass-media advertising imagery. The present work, however, belongs to the artist's later GIRLFRIEND series, in which Prince re-photographed amateur snapshots of women on motorcycles that had been submitted to biker magazines. "I was flipping through a magazine," Prince has recalled, "and came upon the reader's page, where tough-looking bikers would send in pictures of their girlfriends. I decided to shoot them for my work" (Quoted in Taka Kawachi, "The Provocations of Dr. Strangelove," RICHARD PRINCE: 4X4, New York, 1999, p. 93). Despite the artist's deadpan explanation of this series, the present work poses a wealth of provocative questions. Not only does this re-photographed image challenge widely accepted notions of artistic originality, but it also provides a candid glimpse of a marginalized and debased sector of American life. By offering snapshots of "babes on bikes" as fine art photography, Prince reminds us that our cultural standards of beauty and taste are ultimately arbitrary and relative.
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