Richard Prince ‘Steals’ Celebrity Instagrams for Gagosian Sale

Richard Prince

In an artworld that has recently seen explicit images of Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence [almost] heading to a gallery near you; prominent American artist Richard Prince – the master of appropriation – is already known for using Instagram as a site for finding and ‘Re-locating’ his celebrity appropriations – and lately; for being kicked off the social media site for posting an image of his 1983 work ‘Spiritual America’, an appropriated photograph of a nude Brook Shields as a child; the original photograph was taken by Gary Gross, and appropriated by Prince.

But the artist soon ‘re-appeared’ on the site and began again by appropriating celebrities Instagram posts and printing them on canvas, ‘Re-photographing’ them in the artist’s own inimitable fashion; and then posting them anew to his own feed with #regram.

Now the inventor of ‘Re-photography’ is selling this latest series of works; the Instagram-inspired #regrams, in a private VIP area at Gagosian‘s Madison Avenue gallery.

With inkjet prints of these latest ‘Re-creations’ on 48-by-56 inch canvases, and Prince’s commentary at the bottom of the works. Comments by the artist that are often only emoticons; this includes Pamela Anderson, Candice Swanepoel, and Kate Moss pictures that are reportedly going for up to $100,000. But as yet no official ‘white cube’ exhibition has been scheduled. Although this is not stopping the artist, as he continues to appropriate his surroundings with his customary ‘Re-authorship’ of pre-existing images.

Words: Paul Black © Artlyst 2014

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