Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Private Collection Galerie Gmurzynska, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner in June 2009
Exhibited
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Richard Prince: Spiritual America, March 22 - September 13, 2008, p. 38 (illustrated)
Literature
Richard Prince: Protest Paintings, exh. cat., Skarstedt, London, 2014, pl. 34, pp. 120, 160 (illustrated, p. 121)
Catalogue Essay
"In contrast to the formulaic design of the earlier monochrome Joke Paintings, in the Protest Paintings we see Prince’s full creative involvement. Carefully assembling different segments of canvas to form the symbolic crossbow shape of the protest placard, Prince combines gestural brushstrokes with underpainting, silkscreen and disjointed signs to create a palimpsest of art historical reference and his own particular brand of humor. A visual expression of the performativity that is both characteristic of a protest and a constant element throughout Prince’s oeuvre, the Protest Paintings are a masterful example of Prince’s unique artistic practice." "Richard Prince. Protest Paintings", Wall Street International Magazine, November 12, 2013
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.