About
Mining images from mass media, advertising and entertainment since the late 1970s, Richard Prince has redefined the concepts of authorship, ownership, and aura. Applying his understanding of the complex transactions of representation to the making of art, he evolved a unique signature filled with echoes of other signatures yet that is unquestionably his own. An avid collector and perceptive chronicler of American subcultures and vernaculars and their role in the construction of American identity, he has probed the depths of racism, sexism, and psychosis in mainstream humor; the mythical status of cowboys, bikers, customized cars, and celebrities; and most recently, the push–pull allure of pulp fiction and soft porn, producing such unlikely icons as the highly coveted Nurse paintings.
Richard Prince was born in 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone. Prince’s work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1992); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (1993); “Fotos, Schilderijen, Objecten,” Museum Boymans–Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1993); Haus der Kunst / Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich (1996); Museum Haus Lange / Museum Haus Esters, Germany (1997); “4x4,” MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Vienna (2000); “Upstate,” MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles (2000); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2001, traveled to Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland; and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany); “American Dream, Collecting Richard Prince for 27 Years,” Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2004); “Canaries in the Coal Mine,” Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo (2006); “The Early Works,” Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (2007); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2007, traveled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Serpentine Gallery, London, through 2008); “American Prayer,” Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (2011); “Prince/Picasso,” Picasso Museum, Spain (2012); and “It’s a Free Concert,” Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2014). Prince’s works are in the public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts Collection, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Prince currently lives and works in New York.
Photo: Gordon M. Grant/The New York Times/Redux
#RichardPrince
Website
Exhibitions
Richard Prince: Cowboy
On the occasion of the publication of Richard Prince: Cowboy, a major monograph on the artist’s preoccupation with the mythic American West, Luc Sante tracks the archetype through mass media, advertising, and the art of Richard Prince to illuminate the cowboy’s enduring appeal.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2020
The Summer 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Joan Jonas’s Mirror Piece 1 (1969) on its cover.
The Right Time
Natasha Stagg on influencers, the loss of the it-girl, and the “promotional life.”
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020
The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.
Cast of Characters
James Lawrence explores how contemporary artists have grappled with the subject of the library.
Visions of the Self: Jenny Saville on Rembrandt
Jenny Saville reveals the process behind her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles.
Richard Prince
Text by Richard Hell.
Fairs, Events & Announcements
Online Reading
Harmony Korine
Young Twitchy
Harmony Korine: Young Twitchy is available for online reading from July 26 through August 25 as part of the From the Library series. This catalogue was published on the occasion of the 2019 exhibition at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, of new paintings by the artist. To make these works, Harmony Korine digitally painted different characters over iPhone photographs of his surroundings in Florida, and then re-created the compositions in oil paint on canvas. The publication includes a new text by Richard Prince.
Harmony Korine: Young Twitchy (New York: Gagosian, 2019)
Online Reading
Richard Prince
High Times
Richard Prince: High Times is available for online reading from July 5 through August 3 as part of the From the Library series. Published on the occasion of the eponymously titled exhibition at Gagosian, West 21st Street, New York, in 2018, the book includes reproductions of Prince’s latest paintings alongside his earlier Hippie Drawings that serve as their main sources. Integrated among these fascinating images are recent essays by the artist; reprints of historical texts by Eve Babitz, Joan Didion, and Kim Gordon; and a new essay by Rachel Kushner. Plastic inserts throughout the book house postcards, facsimiles of ephemeral materials related to 1960s culture from Prince’s personal collection, and a seven-inch recording of Prince’s 1985 composition “Loud Song.”
Richard Prince: High Times (New York: Gagosian, 2018)
Book Launch
Visions of the Self
Rembrandt and Now
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 6:30–8:30pm
Kenwood House, London
www.english-heritage.org.uk
In the interest of public health, this event has been postponed until further notice.
Gagosian is pleased to host a drinks reception to celebrate the release of Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, published on the occasion of the recent eponymous exhibition at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. Organized in partnership with English Heritage, the exhibition places Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665) in dialogue with self-portraits by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucian Freud, and Pablo Picasso, as well as leading contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Jenny Saville, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others. The catalogue includes an introduction by Wendy Monkhouse, senior curator at English Heritage, and a text by art historian David Freedberg. To attend the free event, RSVP to londonevents@gagosian.com. Space is limited.
Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now (London: Gagosian, 2020)
Museum Exhibitions
Closed
Feelings
Kunst und Emotion
November 7, 2019–October 4, 2020
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
www.pinakothek-der-moderne.de
One hundred paintings, objects, and films from contemporary artists invite the viewer to intuitively approach art from an emotional perspective. What does art provoke in us? To what extent does our view of art depend on our personal experiences and memories? This exhibition seeks to encourage this direct dialogue between artwork and viewer in order to stimulate an intense emotional engagement. Work by Gregory Crewdson, Richard Prince, and Cindy Sherman is included.
Installation view, Feelings: Kunst und Emotion, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, November 7, 2019–October 4, 2020. Artwork © Richard Prince
Closed
Third Dimension
Works from the Brant Foundation
November 13, 2019–September 3, 2020
Brant Foundation, New York
brantfoundation.org
Bringing together more than twenty artists integral to the Brant Foundation’s collection, this exhibition offers a glimpse into the multifaceted practices of artists whose work Peter M. Brant has collected over the past fifty years. Work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Urs Fischer, Mike Kelley, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.
Installation view, Third Dimension: Works from the Brant Foundation, Brant Foundation, New York, November 13, 2019–September 3, 2020. Artwork, front to back: © Urs Fischer, © Dan Flavin
Closed
Happy!
October 27, 2019–July 5, 2020
NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
nsuartmuseum.org
Happy! presents contemporary works produced by artists who aim to engage the viewer emotionally. In their works, as in life, sorrow and happiness are intertwined. The exhibition follows a multigenerational trajectory from the mid-twentieth century to today. Work by Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, and Andy Warhol is included.
Takashi Murakami, Open Your Hands Wide, Embrace Happiness!, 2010 © 2010 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved
Closed
POP Power from Warhol to Koons
Masterworks from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
September 28, 2019–March 8, 2020
Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia
www.taubmanmuseum.org
POP Power celebrates a perennial movement that revels in the new and the now, the celebrity and the commodity, and art made accessible for the masses. Work by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, and Andy Warhol is included.
Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (da Vinci Mona Lisa), 2016, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation © Jeff Koons
Press
Richard Prince and the New Meaning of High Art by Thomas Fuller
New York Times
May 31, 2019
Online
PDF
The Best Art Books of 2018 by Roberta Smith, Holland Cotter, and Jason Farago
New York Times
December 13, 2018
Online
PDF
Richard Prince’s New, Late Style Is One of His Best by Roberta Smith
New York Times
November 29, 2018
Online
PDF