Installation Views

Works Exhibited

About

A cowboy walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “Who’s the asshole who owns this shithole?”
—Richard Prince

Gagosian is pleased to present Richard Prince’s Cowboy paintings.

Over the last thirty years, the American cowboy has given rise to some of Prince’s most celebrated works. Dividing into several phases between the early 1980s and the present, his rephotographing of verité images inspired by cowboy Westerns and produced for the advertising industry, reveals as much about his shifting relationship to an American icon and its construction by the mass media as his use of evolving reprographic technologies.

In the earliest iterations, out of necessity Prince shot around advertising copy to obtain the final edit, resulting in tightly cropped, grainy close-ups of larger-than-life ranchers, printed in standard format. In the second stage, enhanced production techniques allowed him to substantially increase the scale and intensity of the final images, and move his subjects out into the landscape. In the third phase he was able to work from high quality images totally devoid of copy. Thus the cowboys were reduced to diminutive yet legible ciphers dwarfed by vast, bucolic American landscapes. Transposed into the world of art, these cinematic vistas evoked—not without a trace of irony—the great Romantic tradition in painting.

Picture Books: Percival Everett and Brandon Taylor

Picture Books: Percival Everett and Brandon Taylor

The second installment of Picture Books, an imprint organized by Emma Cline and Gagosian, presents author Percival Everett’s novella Grand Canyon, Inc. alongside Untitled (Original Cowboy), a photograph by Richard Prince. In celebration of the publication, Everett met with author Brandon Taylor to discuss the novella, the role of history in the writing process, and the similarity in methodologies for science and literature.

Richard Prince: Cowboy

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, Lucy Sante tracks the archetype through mass media, advertising, and the art of Richard Prince to illuminate the cowboy’s enduring appeal.

Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2020

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

The Right Time

Natasha Stagg on influencers, the loss of the it-girl, and the “promotional life.”

Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020

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

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

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

Richard Prince

Text by Richard Hell.

Cover of the book Richard Prince: Bettie Kline

Richard Prince: Bettie Kline

$200
Richard Prince: Early Photography, 1977–87 poster

Richard Prince: Early Photography, 1977–87

$20
Cover of the book Richard Prince: The Entertainers

Richard Prince: The Entertainers

$75
Cover of the book Grand Canyon, Inc. by Percival Everett

Grand Canyon, Inc. / Untitled (Original Cowboy)

From $40
Richard Prince: Untitled (Tire Planter)

Richard Prince: Untitled (Tire Planter)

$2,000
Front of Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg Wrestling Hoodie

Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg Wrestling Hoodie

$1,860
Cover of the book Richard Prince: High Times

Richard Prince: High Times

$100
Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg Workwear Ottoman

Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg Workwear Ottoman

$10,000
Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg: Flower Biker Lounge Chair

Darren Romanelli for Katz + Dogg: Flower Biker Lounge Chair

$20,000