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Fugitive Artist: The Early
Work of Richard Prince, 1974-77
January 28, 2007 - June 24, 2007
Since the early 1980s,
Richard Prince has been one of the leading artists of the "Pictures
Generation," along with such contemporaries as Cindy Sherman, Sherrie
Levine and Jack Goldstein. Prince became one of the key practitioners of
appropriation art by taking pre-existing photographs, often from magazine
and newspaper ads, and re-photographing them to create new imagery that
commented on contemporary cultural values. Since that time, through work
in such varied mediums as painting, sculpture and photography, he has established
himself as one of the most original and influential figures on the contemporary
art scene. Yet the origins of his practice have remained obscure.
Through careful and painstaking research, Michael Lobel,
Ph.D., uncovered Prince's early work, created in the mid-1970s. "It
was stunning," says Lobel, who is Assistant Professor of Art History
and Director of the M.A. Program in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism,
and Theory at Purchase College, State University of New York. "One
could trace his path, the development of the techniques and subject matter
that led to the work for which he is now best known. We see Prince toying
with the imagery he would eventually use in his appropriated photographs,
and beginning to experiment with re-photography itself."
Thus, the landmark exhibition Fugitive Artist: The Early
Work of Richard Prince, 1974-77 was born. According to Lobel, this show
of over 50 works is certain to alter existing views of the artist's oeuvre.
Prince's drawings, prints, altered text works and mixed media photo-collages,
created between 1974 and 1977, provide a significant and compelling new
context for his more recognizable works in their exploration of themes of
authorship, repetition and identity. Just as significantly, they offer insight
into an important period in the history of contemporary art that is in need
of further investigation. As Lobel describes it:
"Prince's early work was made during a period when
the conceptual art tendencies of the late 1960s and early 1970s were beginning
to give way to the concern with media and advertising that would characterize
the postmodernist art of the 1980s." The title of the exhibition is
derived from one of the artist's works in the show. "It also describes
how Prince has created an artistic persona that's hard to pin down,"
says Lobel. "He seems to have worked to excise his pre-appropriationist
activities from the public record of his career. This is not unusual for
artists. Sometimes they destroy or alter their early work to shape their
own career narratives. And sometimes an art historian comes along and adds
to those narratives or revises them in some way."
Fugitive Artist: The Early Work of Richard Prince, 1974-77 will be on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art/Purchase College
from January 28 through June 24, 2007. Exhibition support is generously
provided by the Strypemonde Foundation; the Westchester Arts Council, with
funds from Westchester County Government; and the Friends of the Neuberger
Museum of Art. Media sponsorship is provided by WFUV.
Program in conjunction with Fugitive Artist
- PANEL: Issues of Attribution in Recent Art
- Thursday, April 26, 7:30 pm
-
- Curators convene to address issues concerning attribution,
the authentication of recent art, and intellectual property rights. Richard
Prince's disavowal of his early work raises a number of challenging questions
that the panel will address through the work of Richard Prince, Jackson
Pollock and Andy Warhol. Moderated by Thom Collins, Director, Neuberger
Museum of Art, the panel features Michael Lobel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
of Art History and Director of the M.A. Program in Modern and Contemporary
Art, Criticism, and Theory, Purchase College; Ellen G. Landau, Andrew W.
Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University,
and curator of "Pollock Matters;" and Richard Polsky, a private
dealer in San Francisco and the author of I Bought Andy Warhol (Abrams).
Fee.
-
Checklist for the exhibition as of 12/20/06
-
- RICHARD PRINCE
- American, born Panama Canal Zone, 1949
-
- Matches (Like Most Everybody Else. . .), 1974
- Etching
- 15 _ x 10 _
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Matches (There's No Dessert/Really There's No Dessert), 1974
- Etching
- 20 3/8 x 25 _
- Courtesy Kathryn Markel, New York, NY
-
- Venus, 1974
- Graphite and collage on paper
- 14 _ x 11 _
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Flavored Language Letter, c. 1974
- Typed letter
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Form Letter no. 3, Flavored Language Series, c. 1974
- Typed letter
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Form Letter No. 4, Flavored Language Series, c. 1974
- Typed letter
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Hey Man, c. 1974
- Typed letter
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy Angus Whyte, San Francisco, CA
-
- Can I Say Rock N Roll, 1975
- Monoprint, collage, engraving on paper
- 26 _ x 20 7/8
- Courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
- Gift of Russell Cowles, 1984
- 1984.924
-
- Four Men Laughing, 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 x 19 _
- Courtesy Kathryn Markel, New York, NY
-
- Maine Course, 1975
- Etching
- 21 _ x 26
- Courtesy Kathryn Markel, New York, NY
-
- Untitled, 1975
- Mixed media
- 24 x 29 _
- Courtesy The JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York, NY
-
- Untitled, 1975
- Mixed media
- 24 x 29 _
- Courtesy The JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York, NY
-
- Untitled (Apolinère Enameled), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 25 _ x 20
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Drive In Theatre), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 _ x 20
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Elephant table-Elephant grave siting), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 5/8 x 20 _
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (I dreamed I was in my backyard dodging a nuclear attack),
1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 _ x 20
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (I wish to thank the following people from the size of New
York), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 25 _ x 20 1/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (July 14 1816 site of slaying of elephant. . .), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 1/8 x 20 1/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (levitating through the third eye. . .), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 25 7/8 x 19 7/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (New York windows the size of New York), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 _ x 20 _
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (observatory foundation), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 _ x 20 3/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Que la tortilla se vuelva), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 x 19 _
- Courtesy Rose Marie Frick, Brunswick, ME
-
- Untitled (Rip off in a small Kansas town), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 27 _ x 19 7/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Shelter for a fugitive westcoasting artist), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 5/8 x 20 _
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Shelter-for the observation of whales-southern Calif.), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 27 _ x 20
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Shelter-ground breaking September 4 75 Warner New Hampshire),
1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 26 x 19 7/8
- Courtesy The Prudential Insurance Company of America
-
- Untitled (Table Beach Southern Me.), 1975
- Monoprint and collage on paper
- 25 _ x 20
- Courtesy Rose Marie Frick, Brunswick, ME
-
- Art Into Activity Equals Art Onto Artist, 1976
- Photographs and collage on paper
- 22 _ x 34 _
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Bomb Dream Enameled, 1976
- Photographs and collage on paper
- 21 _ x 33 _
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Bomb Dream Enamled, 1976
- Unique artist's book
- 8 9/16 x 7 7/8 x 3/16 (closed)
- Courtesy Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
-
- Eleven Conversations, 1976
- In Tracks: A Journal of Artists' Writings vol.2, no. 3 (Fall
1976)
- Periodical
- 9 x 11 (open)
- Private Collection, New York, NY
-
- Fish Story, 1976
- Unbound artist's book
- 9 x 8
- Courtesy Bevan O. Davies, Kennebunk, ME
-
- Prince on Prince on Prince on Prince on Prince, 1976
- Typewritten text on letterhead sheet
- 11 x 8 _
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Property Owner, 1976
- Photographs and collage on paper
- 21 x 34
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Twins, 1976
- Collage
- 11 x 16 _
- Courtesy Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
-
- Untitled, 1976
- Photographs and collage on paper
- 22 x 30
- Courtesy Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, National Endowment
for the Arts Museum Purchase Plan
-
- Untitled (Christina's World), 1976
- Collage
- 11 x 17
- Courtesy Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
-
- Untitled (objects are nothing. . .), c. 1976
- Altered magazine page (ink on paper)
- 11 x 8 _
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Card Shark, 1977
- Photograph mounted on board in folder
- 10 _ x 16 7/8 (board)
- Courtesy Sragow Gallery, New York, NY
-
- Untitled, 1977
- Photographs and mixed media
- 23 _ x 19 _
- Courtesy David Deitcher, New York, NY
-
- Untitled, 1977
- Photographs and typewritten text on board
- 10 _ x 17
- Courtesy Knight Landesman, New York, NY
-
- Untitled, 1977
- Color coupler prints collaged on gelatin silver prints mounted on paper
- 22 _ x 30
- Courtesy Salke Family Trust, Boston, MA
-
- Abbreviations, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- About the Author, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- The Author, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- The Author's Apology for His Book, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- Author's Note, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- Epilogue, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-
- Etymology, c. 1977
- Offset lithograph
- 8 _ x 11
- Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY
-