Untitled

Richard Prince

1999 · 4 gelatin silver prints and a button · Photographs

After earning art-world acclaim (and a fair share of notoriety) for his practice of re-photographing the commercial imagery found in magazines, in the late 1990s Prince began adapting these same images as collage elements for new compositions. Winking at accusations of plagiarism, these works constitute a wry commentary on what he felt were misconstrued interpretations of his own output. Here, Prince intersperses promotional photographs of and autographs by celebrities (or more often, their assistants) with signatures forged by the artist himself. In doing so, he counters the prevalent interpretation of his work by critics at the time—namely, that in his appropriations, Prince was disavowing traditional notions of artistic authorship.

Artist

Richard Prince

Date

1999

Medium

4 gelatin silver prints and a button

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Marian and James H. Cohen, in memory of their son, Michael Harrison Cohen, 2000