Beschreibung:

Richard Prince Untitled Joke Painting 2009 Collage and acrylic on canvas. 48 x 36 in. (121.9 x 91.4 cm.) Signed and dated “R. Prince 2009” on the reverse.
Provenance Gagosian Gallery, New York Catalogue Essay Richard Prince’s Joke Paintings have remained a constant high point within the artist’s output for over two decades. Most of Prince’s earlier Jokes feature lettering in a single solid color against a contrasting single-color ground, with little to no supplemental imagery or ornamentation. The present lot demonstrates the evolution of Prince’s series, as it includes a new style of lettering and a complex and intricate backdrop for his text. Whereas in many of Prince’s other paintings the lettering was the obvious focus of the work, here the words are slightly more difficult to pick out against the busy background. The lettering is also constrained within a rectangular shape in the center of the canvas rather than extended across its entire width. It seems that Prince has intensified “a carefully constructed hybrid that is also some kind of joke, charged by conflicting notions of high, low and lower” (R. Smith The New York Times, September 28, 2007). The work is technically lush, utilizing both acrylic and collage. The centered block letters read, in nine rows, “I never had a penny to my name, so I changed my name. Again, I never had a penn.” Prince’s obvious joke is corroborated by letters cut in half, and even missing with respect to final “y” in penny. One must assume that he did not have enough to his name even to get the text set correctly. The background is a storm of yellow, green, and pink swirls, layered on the painting’s collage element: vintage nurse romance novel covers, a subject of his voracious collecting that has made it’s way into his art making practice. “ I don’t see any difference now between what I collect and what I make. It’s become the same. What I’m collecting will, a lot of times, end up in my work.” Clearly referencing and building upon Prince’s own body of work by returning to the original inspiration for many of his other paintings yet approaching it in a new way; Untitled Joke Painting it is a fusion of his previous artistic stylings. Interestingly, the joke Prince prints across the present lot is entirely unrelated to the subject of nurses, and thus the viewer might be left wondering what the connection is between the subject and its background. Perhaps there exists a fabulously esoteric answer to this riddle. Or, perhaps, Prince looks to make a joke out of the viewer’s confusion. As he is quoted above, Prince is very honest concerning the roots of his painterly subjects. If what he has collected also amounts to the oeuvre he has amassed, perhaps it’s simply natural for one piece to pratfall over another. Read More Artist Bio Richard Prince American • 1947 While some artists are known for a signature style, Richard Prince is most closely associated with his subject matter: for instance, Cowboys, his series of the Marlboro man magnified between 1980 and 1994; Nurses, sinister yet seductive, all copies from pulp novel covers; joke text paintings, simple block lettering of his own or appropriated jokes. Often labelled an artist of the Pictures Generation alongside Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo Prince has been said to be the contemporary artist who most understands the depth and influence of mass media over life in the 20th and 21st centuries. In whichever medium Prince chooses to work, he stays within the realm of appropriation. Of course Prince is not met without controversy, and he has been on the losing end of several lawsuits involving copyright infringement. His "Instagram" series — unedited reproductions of content posted by models, influencers and celebrities on their personal feeds — sold for upwards of $100,000 at primary market, making for a memorable moment at Frieze Week New York in 2015. View More Works