Provenance
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
Private Collection
London, Phillips de Pury & Company, Contemporary Art Evening Sale, June 28, 2012, lot 6
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Richard Prince, May 1 – July 12, 1992, then traveled to Düsseldorf, Kunstverein (December 4 1992 – January 20, 1993), San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (April 29 – July 25, 1993), Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen (October 3 – November 27, 1993) (another example exhibited)
Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Richard Prince: Photographs, December 8, 2001 – February, 24 2002 (variant)
Literature
L. Phillips, Richard Prince, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992, p. 189, p. 99 (illustrated)
Richard Prince: Photographs, exh. cat., Zurich: Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel, 2002, p.74 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay

Throughout his career artist Richard Prince has constantly called into question the notion of appropriation and authorship. Inspired by his early exposure to advertisement as an article clipper at Time-Life Inc., Prince recalls his 1970’s day job: “I was in the tear-sheets department. At the end of the day, all I was left with was the advertising images, and it became my subject. Pens, watches, models—it wasn’t your typical subject matter for art. (Richard Prince in K. Rosenberg, “Artist: Richard Prince,” New York Magazine, 2005) What seemed to Prince at the time as divergent artistic material, would later in fact serve as his lifelong inspiration. Culling his imagery from sleek and glossy advertisements promoting luxury good as seen on alluring female models, Prince strove to make these photographs his own by simply detracting their advertising slogans and toying with the image either by expanding, blurring or cropping the photograph. Prince explains that “The pictures I went after, ‘stole,’ were too good to be true. They were about wishful thinking, public pictures that happen to appear in the advertising sections of mass market magazines, pictures not associated with an author it was their look I was interested in. I wanted to re¬present the closest thing to the real thing.” (Richard Prince in “Spiritual America: No Holds Barred,” Richard Prince, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1992, p. 85)

The present lot, Untitled (cowboy), 1986, is an exemplary work from his infamous cowboy series which first took form in 1981. Prince chose the rugged and handsome cowboy depicted in the Marlboro cigarette ads as his cultural protagonist. Prince explains “I started taking pictures of the cowboys. You don’t see them out in public anymore—you can’t ride down a highway and see them on a billboard. But at Time-Life, I was working with seven or eight magazines, and Marlboro had ads in almost all of them.” (Richard Prince in K. Rosenberg, “Artist: Richard Prince, New York Magazine, 2005) The cowboy, a slightly mythic figure—one belonging to fantasy more than reality—had a cultural resurgence in the form of the “Marlboro man,” the cigarette ads in which this hero was seen had become widely recognizable with inviting slogans like “Come to where the flavor is …. Come to Marlboro Country.” The ads did not sell the consumer a product but an associated lifestyle of grandiose independence; the cowboy, with his charming weather-beaten physique, takes root in the historical days of the Wild West. "The image of the cowboy is so familiar in American iconology that it has become almost invisible through its normality. And yet the cowboy is also the most sacred and masklike of cultural figures. In both a geographical and cultural sense, a cowboy is an image of endurance itself, a stereotypical symbol of American cinema. He is simultaneously the wanderer and the mythological symbol of social mobility. Even today, the image of the cowboy has not lost its luster. (R. Brooks, "Spiritual America: No Holds Barred," exh. cat. Richard Prince, 1992, p. 95)

The present lot’s cowboy is seen at the right hand side of the composition as though he has, just moments ago ridden into the vast meadow. Dressed in typical cowboy apparel—Stetson hat, chaps, and vest—he is a highly romanticized hero representing the perfect specimen of an American man, galloping onto the scene with a virulent presence and unwavering cool. The blurring of the image indicates a forceful command of the wild terrain he forges through, giving expediency to the scene as though the cowboy will disappear across the composition and out the left hand side of the frame in just seconds. By removing the text Prince makes a vivid point regarding advertising and how image and text have become inseparable even long after the text has been eradicated from the image. Smoking, like the cowboy, has become deeply ingrained in American culture as the essence of rebellious independence. Prince invites the viewer to question this western land and the cowboys who inhabit it in an effort to debunk American myths and question the very nature of advertising itself. The cowboy, like the artist himself has struck out on his own, alone in an unknown terrain, questioning and exploring the boundaries of what is both tangible and intangible.
Artist Biography
Richard Prince
American • 1947
For more than three decades, Prince's universally celebrated practice has pursued the subversive strategy of appropriating commonplace imagery and themes – such as photographs of quintessential Western cowboys and "biker chicks," the front covers of nurse romance novellas, and jokes and cartoons – to deconstruct singular notions of authorship, authenticity and identity.
Starting his career as a member of the Pictures Generation in the 1970s alongside such contemporaries as Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo and Sherrie Levine, Prince is widely acknowledged as having expanded the accepted parameters of art-making with his so-called "re-photography" technique – a revolutionary appropriation strategy of photographing pre-existing images from magazine ads and presenting them as his own. Prince's practice of appropriating familiar subject matter exposes the inner mechanics of desire and power pervading the media and our cultural consciousness at large, particularly as they relate to identity and gender constructs.
View More Works

8

Richard Prince

Untitled (cowboy)

1986
Ektacolor photograph
image 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm)
sheet 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Signed, numbered and dated "Prince 1986 ap" lower right. This work is an artist’s proof from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist’s proof.

Estimate
$1,000,000 - 1,500,000

Sold for $1,145,000

Contact Specialist
Amanda Stoffel
Head of Evening Sale, Contemporary Art
New York
+ 1 212 940 1261

Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale, Design
New York
+ 1 212 940 1266

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

1
Franz West
Divan
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $137,000
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2
Fredrik Værslev
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $68,750
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3
Wyatt Kahn
Pair
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4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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5
Ed Ruscha
Cherry
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6
Martin Kippenberger
Ego (Selbstporträt)
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7
Peter Doig
Untitled
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $293,000
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8
Richard Prince
Untitled (cowboy)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,145,000
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9
Marilyn Minter
Wave
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $269,000
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10
Guyton\Walker
Untitled (Ketel 1 Knife Painting)
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
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11
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $100,000
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12
Mathias Bengtsson
“Slice” chair
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
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13
Alex Hubbard
Nonstop Home
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14
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Lucie Rie, Master Potter) 1J
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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15
Dan Rees
Artex Painting
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16
Kenneth Noland
Chac volant
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17
Carl Andre
32-Part Reciprocal Invention (RS 1971-20)
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18
Sturtevant
Study for Stella Bethlehem's Hospital
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19
Sturtevant
Muybridge Plate #136, Woman Shifting Her Weight with Arms on Hip, Arms Behind Back
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20
Haim Steinbach
ten second memos #7
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21
Luc Tuymans
Exhibit #2
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22
Marc Newson
"Extruded Table 2"
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23
Franz West
o.T. (model)
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24
Martin Kippenberger
Sechs
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25
Niki de Saint Phalle
Pouf serpent bleu
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26
Tom Wesselmann
Blue Nude Drawing (12/17/99)
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27
Keith Haring
Pyramid
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28
Jack Pierson
The Crippled Beggar Knew a Priceless Secret
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29
Mark Flood
Announcement Frame
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30
Christian Rosa
Flora or Floral
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31
Thomas Heatherwick
"Extrusion" bench
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32
Ryan Sullivan
September 1, 2009 - February 11, 2010
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33
Thomas Houseago
Abstract Head I
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34
Oscar Tuazon
Untitled
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35
Rashid Johnson
Bull
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36
Franz West
Trog
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Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

Create your first list.

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Richard Prince

8

Richard Prince

Untitled (cowboy)

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

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